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OLIVER CROMWELL 



BY 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



ILLUSTRATED 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
NEW YORK 1900 






'l_iOr»s 



V... I 

SEP 14 1900 



K« 



SLOf'VO COPY. 
Ui wmw to 

SEP 20 1900 



80110 

Copyright, rgoo, by 
Charles Scribner's Sans 



THE LIBRARY' 

I OF congress' 

WASHINGTON; 



TROW DIRECTORY 

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 

NEW YORK 




OLIVER CROMWELL. 

From the portrait by Robert Walker at Hinchingbrooke. 
By permission of the Earl of Sandwich. 
(Probably painted soon after the beginning- of the Civil War, when Croir 



as forty three or -four years ol 



TrorrrWIIT, our chief of men, who through a cloud 
Not of war onh . ions rude, 

Guided by faith. is fortitude, 

Ha: 

- 

And V 

Hl! i 
Of hi 






7 



Cromwell, our chief of men, who through a cloud 
Not of war only, but detractions rude, 
Guided by faith, and matchless fortitude, 
To peace and truth, thy glorious way hast ploughed, 

And on the neck of crowned fortune proud 

Hast reared God's trophies, and his work pursued, 
While Darwen stream, with blood of Scots imbrued, 
And Dunbar field, resounds thy praises loud, 

And Worcester's laureate wreath. Yet much remains 
To conquer still ; Peace hath her victories 
No less renowned than War : new foes arise, 

Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains. 
Help us to save free conscience from the paw 
Of hireling wolves, whose gospel is their maw. 

— Milton. 

Executive Chamber, Albany, 
June, 1900. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I. THE TIMES AND THE MAN .... i 

II. THE LONG PARLIAMENT AND THE 

CIVIL WAR 51 

III. THE SECOND CIVIL WAR AND THE 

DEATH OF THE KING 99 

IV. THE IRISH AND SCOTCH WARS . . 141 

V. THE COMMONWEALTH AND PROTEC- 
TORATE 177 

VI. PERSONAL RULE 210 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Oliver Cromwell ...... Frontispiece 

{From the portrait by Robert Walker at Hinchingbroohe.) 

FACING 
PAGE 

Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford ... 8 

(From the miniature at Devonshire House.) 

Oliver Cromwell . . . . . . .12 

(From a miniature by Cooper.) 

Sir John Eliot 16 

(From tlie portrait by Van Somer at Port Eliot.) 

All Saints' Church, Huntingdon . . . .24 

Cromwell's House at Ely ...... 28 

Archbishop Laud . . . . . . -34 

(From the portrait at Lambeth Palace, painted by Vandyke. ) 

West Tower, Ely Cathedral, from Monastery Close . 40 
John Pym . . . . . . . • 5 2 

(From the portrait by Cornelius Janssen.) 

Prince Rupert . . . . . . .68 

{From the portrait by Vandyke at Hinchingbrooke.) 

Fac-simile of Letter from Oliver Cromwell to Mr. Storie, 
written January 11, 1635, said to be the earliest 
extant letter in Cromwell's Handwriting . . 74 

(From the original in the British Museum.) 

ix 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



FACING 
PAGE 

John Hampden ....... 80 

(From tlte portrait by Robert Walker at Port Eliot.) 

Cromwell's Engagement with the Marquis of Newcastle's 
Regiment of " Whitecoats " in the Battle of Marston 

Moor 88 

The City Walls of York, with the Cathedral in the Distance 96 
King Charles I. . . . . . .108 

(From the replica at the Dresden Gallery, by Sir Peter Lely.) 

General Sir Thomas Fairfax . . . . .116 

(From the portrait by Robert Walker at Althorp.) 

John Milton . . . . . . . . 1 20 

(From the drawing in crayon by Faithorne at Bay/ordbury.) 

The Death Warrant of King Charles I. — Signed by Oliver 

Cromwell and other members of the court . .128 

(From the original in the library in the House of Lords.) 

Pride's Purge . . . . . . -136 

Interior of Westminster Hall. Where Parliament sat and 

where King Charles I. was tried and sentenced . 140 

Magdalen Tower, Drogheda . . . . . 154 

St. Lawrence's Gate, Drogheda. . . . .158 

Cromwell Leading the Assault on Drogheda . . .164 

The Battle-field of Dunbar . . . . .172 

Seal of the Protectorate . . . . . .178 



(Front an impression in wax in the British Museum.) 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



FACING 
PAGE 

. I84 



186 
I9O 



Admiral Robert Blake ..... 

{From the portrait at Wadham College, Oxford.) 

Cromwell Dissolving the Long Parliament 

Oliver Cromwell ...... 

(From the painting at Althorp by Robert Walker.) 

The Clock Tower, Hampton Court .... 200 
The Great Hall, Hampton Court — In this room the state 

dinners were given under the Protectorate . . 206 

The Second Installation of Cromwell as Protector, in 

Westminster Hall, June 26, 1657 . . .210 

Sir William Waller . . . . . .216 

(From the portrait by Sir Peter Lely at Goodwood.) 

Henry Cromwell — Son of the Protector, and Governor of 

Ireland . . . . . . . .220 



The Last Charge of the Ironsides 
Richard Cromwell 
Exterior of Westminster Hall 
Oliver Cromwell 

(From the bust by Bernini.) 



226 
232 
236 
24O 



OLIVER CROMWELL 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

FOR over a century and a half after his death 
the memory of the greatest Englishman of 
the seventeenth century was looked upon with 
horror by the leaders of English thought, political 
and literary ; the very men who were carrying to 
fruition Cromwell's tremendous policies being 
often utterly ignorant that they were following in 
his footsteps. At last the scales began to drop 
from the most far-seeing eyes. Macaulay, with 
his eminently sane and wholesome spirit, held 
Cromwell and the social forces for which he stood 
— Puritanic and otherwise — at their real worth, 
and his judgment about them was, in all essen- 
tials, accurate. But the true appreciation of the 
place held by the greatest soldier-statesman of the 
seventeenth century began with the publication 
of his life and letters by Carlyle. The gnarled 
genius of the man who worshipped the heroes of 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

the past as intensely as he feared and distrusted 
the heroes of the present, enabled him to write 
with a loftiness and intensity that befitted his sub- 
ject. But Carlyle's singular incapacity to "see 
veracity," as he would himself have phrased it, 
made him at times not merely tell half-truths, but 
deliberately invert the truth. He was of that not 
uncommon cloistered type which shrinks shud- 
dering from actual contact with whatever it, in 
theory, most admires, and which, therefore, is re- 
duced in self-justification to misjudge and misrep- 
resent those facts of past history which form prec- 
edents for what is going on before the author's 
own eyes. 

Cromwell lived in an age when it was not pos- 
sible to realize a government based upon those 
large principles of social, political, and religious 
liberty in which — at any rate, during his earlier 
years — he sincerely believed; but the movement 
of which he was the head was the first of the great 
movements which, marching along essentially the 
same lines, have produced the English-speaking 
world as we at present know it. This primary 
fact Carlyle refused to see, or at least to admit. 
As the central idea of his work he states that the 
Puritanism of the Cromwellian epoch was the 
"last glimpse of the Godlike vanishing from this 
England ; conviction and veracity giving place 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

to hollow cant and formulism. . . . The last 
of all our Heroisms. . . . We have wandered 
far away from the ideas which guided us in that 
century, and indeed which had guided us in all 
preceding centuries, but of which that century 
was the ultimate manifestation ; we have wan- 
dered very far; and must endeavor to return and 
connect ourselves therewith again. ... I 
will advise my reader to forget the modern meth- 
ods of reform; not to remember that he has ever 
heard of a modern individual called by the name 
of ' Reformer,' if he would understand what the 
old meaning of the word was. The Cromwells, 
Pyms, and Hampdens, who were understood on 
the Royalist side to be fire-brands of the devil, 
have had still worse measure from the Dry-as- 
Dust philosophies and sceptical histories of later 
times. They really did resemble fire-brands of 
the devil if you looked at them through specta- 
cles of a certain color, for fire is always fire ; but 
by no spectacles, only by mere blindness and 
wooden - eyed spectacles, can the flame -girt 
heaven's messenger pass for a poor, mouldy 
Pedant and Constitution-monger such as these 
would make him out to be." 

This is good writing of its kind; but the 
thought is mere " hollow cant and unveracity ; " 
not only far from the truth, but the direct reverse 

3 



\ 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

of the truth. It is itself the wail of the pedant 
who does not know that the flame-girt heaven's 
messenger of truth is always a mere mortal to 
those who see him with the actual eyes of the 
flesh, although mayhap a great mortal; while to 
the closet philosopher his quality of flame-girted- 
ness is rarely visible until a century or thereabouts 
has elapsed. 

So far from this great movement, of which 
Puritanism was merely one manifestation, being 
the last of a succession of similar heroisms, it had 
practically very much less connection with what 
went before than with all that has guided us in 
our history since. Of course, it is impossible to 
draw a line with mathematical exactness between 
the different stages of history, but it is both pos- 
sible and necessary to draw it with rough effi- 
ciency; and, speaking roughly, the epoch of the 
Puritans was the beginning of the great modern 
epoch of the English-speaking world — infinitely - 
its greatest epoch. We have not " wandered far 
from the ideas that guided " the wisest and most 
earnest leaders in the century that saw Cromwell; 
on the contrary, these ideas were themselves very- 
far indeed from those which had guided the Eng- 
lish people in previous ages, and the ideas that 
now guide us represent on the whole what was 
best and truest in the thought of the Puritans. 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

As for Pym and Hampden, their type had prac- 
tically no representative in England prior to their 
time, while all the great legislative reformers since 
then have been their followers. The Hampden 
type — the purest and noblest of types — reached its 
highest expression in Washington. Pym, the 
man of great powers and great services, with a 
tendency to believe that Parliamentary govern- 
ment was the cure for all evils, followed to a line 
" the modern methods of reform," and was exactly 
the man who, if he had lived in Carlyle's day, 
Carlyle would have sneered at as a " constitution- 
monger." It was men of the kind of Hampden 
and Pym who, before Carlyle's own eyes, were 
striving in the British Parliament for the reforms 
which were to carry one stage farther the work 
of Hampden and Pym ; who were endeavoring 
to secure for all creeds full tolerance ; to give the 
people an ever-increasing share in ruling their 
own destinies ; to better the conditions of social 
and political life. In the great American Civil 
War the master spirits in the contest for union 
and freedom were actuated by a fervor as intense 
as, and even finer than, that • which actuated the 
men of the Long Parliament; while in rigid 
morality and grim devotion to what he conceived 
to be God's bidding, the Southern soldier, Stone- 
wall Jackson, was as true a type of the " Gen- 

5 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

eral of the Lord, with his Bible and his Sword," 
as Cromwell or Ireton. 

The whole history of the movement which re- 
sulted in the establishment of the Commonwealth 
of England will be misread and misunderstood if 
we fail to appreciate that it was the first modern, 
and not the last mediaeval, movement; if we fail 
to understand that the men who figured in it and 
the principles for which they contended, are 
strictly akin to the men and the principles that 
have appeared in all similar great movements 
since : in the English Revolution of 1688; in the 
American Revolution of 1776; and the Ameri- 
can Civil War of 1861. We must keep ever in 
mind the essentially modern character of the 
movement if we are to appreciate its true inward- 
ness, its true significance. Fundamentally, it was 
the first struggle for religious, political, and social 
freedom, as we now understand the terms. As 
was inevitable in such a first struggle, there re- 
mained even among the forces of reform much of 
what properly belonged to previous generations. 
In addition to the modern side there was a medi- 
aeval side, too. Just so far as this mediaeval ele- 
ment obtained, the movement failed. All that 
there was of good and of permanence in it was 
due to the new elements. 

To understand the play of the forces which 

6 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

produced Cromwell and gave him his chance, we 
must briefly look at the England into which he 
was born. 

He saw the light at the close of the reign 
of Queen Elizabeth, in the last years of the 
Tudor dynasty, and he grew to manhood during 
the inglorious reign of the first English king of 
the inglorious House of Stuart. The struggle 
between the reformed churches and the ancient 
church, against which they were in revolt, was still 
the leading factor in shaping European politics, 
though other factors were fast assuming an equal 
weight. The course of the Reformation in Eng- 
land had been widely different from that which 
it had followed in other European countries. 
The followers of Luther and Calvin, whatever 
their shortcomings — and they were many and 
grievous — had been influenced by a fiery zeal for 
righteousness, a fierce detestation of spiritual cor- 
ruption; but in England the Reformation had 
been undertaken for widely different reasons by 
Henry VIII. and his creatures, though the bulk 
of their followers were as sincere as their brethren 
on the Continent. Henry's purpose had been 
simple, namely, to transfer to himself the power 
and revenues of the Papacy, so far as he could 
seize them, and thus to add to the spiritual 
supremacy against which the leaders of the 

7 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

Reformation had revolted : the absolute sov- 
ereignty which the Tudors were seeking to 
establish in England. Elizabeth stood infinitely 
above her father in most respects; but in religious 
views they were not far apart, and in theory they 
were both believers in absolutism. They had no 
standing army, and they were always in want of 
money, so that in practice they never ventured 
seriously to offend the influential and moneyed 
classes. But under Henry the misery and suffer- 
ing of the lower classes became very great, and 
the yeomen were largely driven from their lands, 
while much of Elizabeth's own administration 
consisted of efforts to grapple with the vagrancy 
and wretchedness which had been caused by the 
degradation of those who stood lowest in the 
social scale. 

When the Stuarts took possession of the throne 
of England they found a people which, unlike 
the peoples of most of the neighboring States, had 
not fought out its religious convictions. The 
Reformation had deeply stirred men's souls. 
Religion had become a matter of vital and terri- 
ble importance to Protestant and to Catholic. 
Among the extremists, the men who had given 
the tone to the Reformation in Germany, Switz- 
erland, Holland, and Scotland, religion, as they 
understood it, entered into every act of their lives. 




Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford. 

From the miniature at Devonshire House. 
By permission of the Duke of Devonshire, K.G. 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

In England there were men of this stamp ; but in 
the English Reformation they had played a wholly 
subordinate part; and indeed had been in almost 
as great danger as the Catholics. Their force, 
therefore, had not spent itself. It had been con- 
served, in spite of their desires. 

Thus it happened that the high tide of extreme 
Protestantism was reached in England, not as 
in other Protestant countries, in the sixteenth 
century, but in the seventeenth. The Stuarts 
were the only Protestant kings who were not in 
religious sympathy with their Protestant subjects. 
In theory the Anglican Church of Henry and 
Elizabeth stood for what we would now regard as 
tyranny. What Henry VIII. strove to do with 
the Anglican Church is what has actually been 
done by the Czars with the Orthodox Church in 
Russia ; but that which was possible with the east- 
ern Slavs was not possible with the westernmost 
and freest of the Teutonic peoples. Yet in the 
actual event it was probably fortunate that the 
English Reformation took the shape it did ; for 
under such conditions it was not marked by the 
intense fanaticism of the reformers elsewhere. 

The Stuarts not only found themselves masters 
of a kingdom where, supposedly, they were spirit- 
ually supreme, while actually their claim to su- 
premacy was certain to be challenged ; they also 

9 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

found themselves at the head of a form of govern- 
ment which was to all appearances despotic, while 
the people over whom they bore sway, though 
slow to object to the forms, were extremely intol- 
erant of the practices of despotism. The Tudors 
were unarmed despots, who disliked the old feudal 
nobility, and who found it for their interest to 
cultivate the commercial classes, and to form a 
new nobility of their own, based upon wealth. 
The men at the lowest round of the social ladder 
— the workingmen and farm laborers — were yet, 
as they remained for a couple of centuries, so unfit 
for the work of political combination that they 
could be safely disregarded by the masters of Eng- 
land. At times their discontent was manifested, 
generally in the shape of abortive peasant insur- 
rections; but there was never need to consider 
them as of serious and permanent importance. 
The middle classes, however, had become very 
powerful, and to their material interests the Tudors 
always took care to defer. At the very close of 
her reign, Elizabeth, who was at heart as thorough 
a tyrant as ever lived, but who possessed that 
shrewd good sense which, if not the noblest, is 
perhaps on the whole the most useful of qualities 
in the actual workaday world, found herself face 
to face with her people on the question of monop- 
olies; and as soon as she understood that they 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

were resolutely opposed to her policy, she instantly 
yielded. In other words, the Tudor despotism 
was conditioned upon the despot's doing nothing 
of which the influential classes of the nation — the 
upper and middle classes — seriously disapproved; 
and this the Stuart kings could never understand. 

Moreover, apart from the fact that the Stuarts 
were so much less shrewd and less able than the 
Tudors, there was the further fact that Englishmen 
as a whole were gradually growing more intoler- 
ant, not only of the practice but of the pretence 
of tyranny, whether in things material or in things 
spiritual. There was a moral awakening which 
rendered it impossible for Englishmen of the sev- 
enteenth century to submit to the brutal wrong- 
doing which marked the political and ecclesiastical 
tyranny of the previous century. The career of 
Henry VIII. could not have been paralleled in 
any shape when once England had begun to breed 
such men as went to the making of the Long 
Parliament. 

Much of the aspiration after higher things took 
the form of spiritual unrest. It must always be 
remembered that the Protestant sects which estab- 
lished themselves in the northern half of Europe, 
although they warred in the name of religious 
liberty, had no more conception of it, as we of this 
day understand it, than their Catholic foes ; and 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

yet it must also be remembered that the bitter 
conflicts they waged prepared the way for the 
wide tolerance of individual difference in matters 
of religious belief which is among the greatest 
blessings of our modern life. An American Cath- 
olic and an American Protestant of to-day, what- 
ever the difference between their theologies, yet 
in their ways of looking at real life, at its relation 
to religion, and the relations of religion and the 
State, are infinitely more akin to one another than 
either is to the men of his religious faith who lived 
three centuries ago. We now admit, as a matter 
of course, that any man may, in religious matters, 
profess to be guided by authority or by reason, as 
suits him best; but that he must not interfere 
with similar freedom of belief in others; and that 
all men, whatever their religious beliefs, have ex- 
actly the same political rights and are to be held 
to the same responsibility for the way they exercise 
these rights. Few indeed were the men who held 
such views at the time when Cromwell was grow- 
ing to manhood. Holland was the State of all 
others in which there was the nearest approach to 
religious liberty; and even in Holland the bitter- 
ness of the Calvinists toward the Arminians was 
something which we can now scarcely understand. 
Arminius was no more at home in Geneva than 
in- Rome; and his followers were prescribed by 

12 

i 




Oliver Cn>mwell. 

From a miniature by Cooper. Here reproduced for the first time. 
By permission of Sir Charles Hartopp, Bart. 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

the most religious people of England, and so far 
as might be were driven from the realm. Calvin- 
ists and Lutherans felt as little inclination as 
Catholics to allow liberty of conscience to others; 
and as grotesque a compromise as ever was made 
in matters religious was that made in Germany, 
when it was decided that the peoples of the various 
German principalities should in mass accept the 
faiths of their respective princes. 

Yet though the Reformers thus strove to estab- 
lish for their own use the very religious intolerance 
against which they had revolted, the mere fact of 
their existence nullified their efforts. Sooner or 
later people who had exercised their own judg- 
ment, and had fought for the right to exercise it, 
were sure grudgingly to admit the same right in 
others. That time was as yet far distant. In 
Cromwell's youth all the leading Christian 
churches were fiercely intolerant. Unless we 
keep in mind that this was the general attitude, 
an attitude which necessarily affected even the 
greatest men, we cannot do justice to the political 
and social leaders of that age when we find them, 
as we so often do, adopting toward their religious 
foes policies from which we, of a happier age, 
turn with horror. 

In England hatred of Roman Catholicism had 
become almost interchangeable with hatred of 

13 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

Spain. Spain had been the one dangerous foe 
which England had encountered under the Tudor 
dynasty, and the only war she had ever waged 
into which the religious element entered was the 
war which put upon the English roll of honor the 
names of her great sixteenth - century seamen, 
Drake and Hawkins, Howard and Frobisher. 
Throughout the sixteenth century Spain had 
towered above every other power of Europe in 
warlike might; and though the Dutch and Eng- 
lish sailors had broken the spell of her invinci- 
bility at sea, on shore her soldiers retained their 
reputation for superior prowess, in spite of the 
victories of Maurice of Orange, until Gustavus 
Adolphus marched his wonderful army down from 
the frozen North. During Cromwell's youth and 
early manhood Spain was still the most powerful 
and most dreaded of European nations. Her 
government had become a mere tyranny; her re- 
ligion fanatical bigotry of a type more extreme 
than any that existed elsewhere, even in an age 
when all creeds tended toward fanaticism and 
bigotry. It was in Spain that the Holy Inquisi- 
tion chiefly flourished — one of the most fearful 
engines for the destruction of all that was highest 
in mankind that the world has ever seen. Cath- 
olics were oppressed in England and Protestants 
in France; but in each country the persecuted 

14 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

sect might almost be said to enjoy liberty, and 
certainly to enjoy peace, when their fate was com- 
pared with the dreadful horrors of torture and 
murder with which Spain crushed out every spe- 
cies of heresy within her borders. Jew, Infidel, 
and Protestant, shared the same awful doom, until 
she had purchased complete religious uniformity 
at the price of the loss of everything that makes 
national life great and noble. The dominion of 
Spain would have been the dominion of deso- 
lation; her supremacy as baneful as that of the 
Turk; and Holland and England, in withstand- 
ing her, rendered the same service to humanity 
that was rendered at that very time by those na- 
tions of southeastern Europe who formed out of 
the bodies of their citizens the bulwark which 
stayed the Turkish fury. 

But if in her relations to one Catholic nation 
England appeared as the champion of religious 
liberty, of all that makes life worth having to the 
free men who live in free nations, yet in her rela- 
tions to another Catholic people she herself played 
the role of merciless oppressor — religious, political, 
and social. Ireland, utterly foreign in speech and 
culture, had been ground into the dust by the 
crushing weight of England's overlordship. Dur- 
ing centuries chaos had reigned in the island ; the 
English intruders possessing sufficient power to 

15 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

prevent the development of any Celtic national 
life, but not to change it into a Norman or Eng- 
lish national life. The English who settled and 
warred in Ireland felt and acted as the most bar- 
barous white frontiersmen of the nineteenth cen- 
tury have acted toward the alien races with whom 
they have been brought in contact. There is no 
language in which to paint the hideous atrocities 
committed in the Irish wars of Elizabeth ; and 
the worst must be credited to the highest English 
officials. In Ireland the antagonism was funda- 
mentally racial ; whether the sovereign of Eng- 
land were Catholic or Protestant made little dif- 
ference in the burden of wrong which the Celt 
was forced to bear. The first of the so-called 
plantations by which the Celts were ousted in 
mass from great tracts of country to make room 
for English settlers, was undertaken under the 
Catholic Queen Mary, and the two counties thus 
created by the wholesale expulsion of the wretch- 
ed kerne were named in honor of the Queen and 
of her spouse, the Spanish Philip. Though Phil- 
ip's bigotry made him the persecutor of heretics, 
it taught him no mercy toward those of his own 
faith but of a different nationality, whether Irish 
or Portuguese. When England became Prot- 
estant, Ireland stood steadfastly for the old faith ; 
and religious was added to race hatred. In Spain 

16 







Sir John Eliot. 

From the portrait by Van Somer at Port Eliot. 



By permi: 



i)t the Earl ot St. Get 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

the Holy Inquisition was the handmaid of grind- 
ing tyranny. In Ireland the Catholic priesthood 
was the sole friend, standby, and comforter of a 
hunted and despairing people. In the Nether- 
lands and on the high seas Protestantism was the 
creed of liberty. In Ireland it was one of the 
masks worn by the alien oppressor. 

France was Catholic, but her Catholicism dif- 
fered essentially from that of Spain, and during 
the first part of the seventeenth century was quite 
as liberal as the Protestantism of England. When 
Cromwell was a child Henry of Navarre was on 
the French throne, and to him all creeds were 
alike. He was succeeded in the actual govern- 
ment of France by the great Cardinals Piichelieu 
and Mazarin, who were Statesmen rather than 
Churchmen; and under them the French Prot- 
estants enjoyed rather more toleration than was 
allowed the Catholics of England. The natural 
foes of France were the two great Catholic powers 
of Spain and Austria, ruled by the twin branches 
of the House of Hapsburg; and her hostility to 
them determined her attitude throughout the 
Thirty Years' War. 

Meanwhile, Holland was at the height of her 
power. She had a far greater colonial empire than 
England, her commercial development was greater, 
and the renown of her war marine higher. Drake 

17 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

and Hawkins had but singed the beard of the 
Spanish king, had but plundered his vessels and 
harassed his great fleets. Van Heemskirk, Piet 
Hein, and the elder Tromp crushed the sea- 
power of Spain by downright hard fighting in 
great pitched battles, and captured her silvei 
fleets entire. 

In Great Britain itself — it must be kept in 
mind that Scotland was as yet an entirely distinct 
kingdom, united to England only by the fact 
that the same line of kings ruled over both — the 
difference between the Scotch and the English, 
though less in degree, was the same in kind as 
that between the English and the Dutch. In 
Scotland, outside of the Highlands, the mass of 
the people were devoted with all the strength of 
their intense and virile natures to the form of 
Calvinism introduced by Knox. Their Church 
government was Presbyterian. As both the Pres- 
byterian ministers and their congregations de- 
manded that the State should be managed in 
essentials according to the wishes of the Church, 
the general feeling was really in the direction of 
a theocratic republic, although the name would 
have frightened them. In Scotland, as in Eng- 
land, no considerable body of men had yet grasped 
the idea that there should be toleration of religious 
differences or a divorce between the functions of 

18 






THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

the State and the Church. In both countries, as 
elsewhere at the time through Christendom, re- 
ligious liberty meant only religious liberty for the 
sect that raised the cry; but, as elsewhere, the 
mere use of the name as a banner under which to 
fight brought nearer the day when the thing itself 
would be possible. 

In England there was practically peace during 
the first forty years of the century, but it was an 
ignoble and therefore an evil peace. Of course, 
peace should be the aim of all statesmen, and is 
the aim of the greatest statesman. Nevertheless, 
not only the greatest statesmen, but all men who 
are truly wise and patriotic, recognize that peace 
is good only when it comes honorably and is used 
for honorable purposes, and that the peace of 
mere sloth or incapacity is as great a curse as the 
most unrighteous war. Those who doubt this 
would do well to study the condition of England 
during the reign of James I., and during the first 
part of the reign of Charles I. England had then 
no standing army and no foreign policy worthy of 
the name. The chief of her colonies was grow- 
ing up almost against her wishes, and wholly 
without any help or care from her. In short, she 
realized the conditions, as regards her relations 
with the outside world and "militarism," which 
certain philosophers advocate at the present day 

19 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

for America. The result was a gradual rotting 
of the national fibre, which rendered it neces- 
sary for her to pass through the fiery ordeal 
of the Civil War in order that she might be 
saved. 
\/ In every nation there is, as there has been from 
^time immemorial, a good deal of difficulty in 
combining the policies of upholding the national 
honor abroad, and of preserving a not too heavily 
taxed liberty at home. Many peoples and many 
rulers who have solved the problem with marked 
success as regards one of the two conditions, have 
failed as regards the other. It was the peculiar 
privilege of the Stuart kings to fail signally in 
both. They were dangerous to no one but their 
own subjects. Their government was an object 
of contempt to their neighbors and of contempt, 
mixed with anger and terror, to their own people. 
They made amends for utter weakness in the face 
of a foreign foe by showing against the free men 
of their own country that kind of tyranny which 
finds its favorite expression in oppressing those 
who resist not at all, or ineffectually. They were 
held on the throne only by a mistaken but hon- 
orable loyalty, and by an unworthy servility; by 
the strong habits formed by the customs of cen- 
turies; and, most of all, by the wise distrust of 
radical innovation and preference for reform to 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

revolution which gives to the English race its 
greatest strength. 

This last attitude, the dislike of revolution, 
was entirely wholesome and praiseworthy. On 
the other hand, the doctrine of the divine right 
of kings, which represented the extreme form of 
loyalty to the sovereign, was vicious, unworthy of 
the race, and to be ranked among degrading su- 
perstitions. It is now so dead that it is easy to 
laugh at it; but it was then a real power for evil. 
Moreover, the extreme zealots who represented 
the opposite pole of the political and religious 
world, were themselves, as is ordinarily the case 
with such extremists, the allies of the forces 
against which they pretended to fight. From 
these dreamers of dreams, of whose "cloistered 
virtue " Milton spoke with such fine contempt, 
the men who possessed the capacity to do things 
turned contemptuously away, seeking practical 
results rather than theoretical perfection, and 
being content to get the substance at some cost 
of form. As always, the men who counted were 
those who strove for actual achievement in the 
field of practical politics, and who were not mis- 
led merely by names. England, in the present 
century, has shown how complete may be the 
freedom of the individual under a nominal mon- 
archy; and the Dreyfus incident in France would 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

be proof enough, were any needed, that despotism 
of a peculiarly revolting type may grow rankly, 
even in a republic, if there is not in its citizens a 
firm and lofty purpose to do justice to all men 
I and guard the rights of the weak as well as of 
the strong. 

James came to the throne to rule over a people 
steadily growing to think more and more seriously 
of religion : to believe more and more in their 
rights and liberties. But the King himself was 
cursed with a fervent belief in despotism, and an 
utter inability to give his belief practical shape in 
deeds. For half a century the spirit of sturdy 
independence had been slowly growing among 
Englishmen. Elizabeth governed almost under 
the forms of despotism; but a despotism which 
does not carry the sword has to accommodate 
itself pretty thoroughly to the desires of the sub- 
jects, once these desires become clearly defined 
and formulated. Elizabeth never ventured to do 
what Henry had done. She left England, there- 
fore, thoroughly Royalist, devoted to the Crown, 
and unable to conceive of any other form of gov- 
ernment, but already desirous of seeing an in- 
crease in the power of the people as expressed 
through Parliament. James, from the very outset 
of his reign, pursued a course of conduct exactly 
fitted both to irritate the people with the pre- 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

tensions of the Crown, and to convince them that 
they could prevent these pretensions from being 
carried out. 

Besides, he offended both their political and 
their religious feelings. England had been grow- 
ing more and more fanatically Protestant ; that is, 
more and more Puritan. Under Elizabeth there 
had been more religious persecution of Puritans, 
and of Dissenters generally, than of Catholics. But 
this could not prevent the growth of the spirit of 
Puritanism. During the reign of James there 
were marked Presbyterian tendencies visible 
within the Anglican Church itself, and plenty 
of Puritans among her divines. Unfortunately, 
both Presbyterian and Anglican were then at one 
in heartily condemning that spirit of true re- 
ligious liberty, of true toleration, which we of 
to-day in the United States recognize as the most 
vital of religious rights. The so-called Inde- 
pendent movement, from which sprang the Con- 
gregational and indeed the Baptist Churches as 
we know them to-day, had begun under Eliza- 
beth. Its votaries contended for what now seems 
the self-evident right of each congregation, if it 
so desires, to decide for itself important questions 
of doctrine and of church management. Yet 
Elizabeth's ministers had actually stamped this 
sect out of existence, with the hearty approval of 

23 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

the wisest men in the realm and of the enormous 
majority of the people. Such an act, and, above 
all, such approval, shows how long and difficult 
was the road which still had to be traversed 
before the goal of religious liberty was reached. 

The people were relatively less advanced 
toward religious than toward political liberty. 
Nevertheless, they were distinctly in advance of 
the King, even in matters religious. The reso- 
lute determination to fight for one's own liberty 
of conscience, when it once becomes the charac- 
teristic of the majority, cannot but tend toward 
securing liberty of conscience for all; whereas, 
for one man, who claims supremacy in the 
Church as well as overlordship in the State, to 
seek to impose his will upon others in matters 
both spiritual and political, cannot but produce a 
very aggravated form of tyranny. The Stuarts 
represented an extreme, reactionary type of king- 
ship ; a type absolutely alien to all that was high- 
est and most characteristic in the English charac- 
ter. They possessed the will to be despots, but 
neither their own powers nor the tendencies of 
the times were in their favor. The tendency 
was, however, very strongly in favor of hereditary 
kingship; so strongly, indeed, that nothing but 
the extreme folly as well as the extreme base- 
ness of the Stuart kings could overcome it. 

24 







All Saints' Church, Huntingdon. 

Containing the registry ..1 Oliver Cromwell's birth and bap- 
tism— a fac-simile of which is here given. Above the record of 
his birth someone had written " England's plague for five years " 
but this is now partially obliterated. 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

Stability of government, and therefore order, de- 
pends in the last resort upon the ability of the 
people to come to a consensus as to where power 
belongs. This consensus is less a matter of 
volition than of long habit, of slow evolution; to 
Americans of to-day, the rule of the majority 
seems part of the natural order of things, whereas 
to Russians it seems utterly unnatural, and they 
could by no possibility be brought into sudden 
acquiescence in it. To Englishmen, in the early 
decades of the seventeenth century, hereditary 
kingship seemed the only natural government, 
and they could be severed from this belief only 
by a succession of violent wrenches. 

James I. stood for absolutism in Church and 
State, and quarrelled with and annoyed his sub- 
jects in the futile effort to realize his ideas. Charles 
I., whom James had vainly sought to marry to a 
Spanish princess, and succeeded in marrying to a 
French princess (Henrietta Maria), took up his 
father's task. In private life he was the best of 
the Stuart kings, reaching about the average level 
of his subjects. In public life his treachery, men- 
dacity, folly, and vindictiveness : his utter inabil- 
ity to learn by experience or to sympathize with 
any noble ambition of his country : his readiness 
to follow evil counsel, and his ingratitude toward 
any sincere friend, made him as unfit as either of 

25 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

his sons to sit on the English throne ; and a greater 
condemnation than this it is not possible to award. 
Germany was convulsed by the Thirty Years' 
War : but Charles cared nothing for the struggle, 
and to her humiliation England had to see Swe- 
den step to the front as the champion of the Ref- 
ormation. At one period Charles even started to 
help the French king against the Huguenots, but 
was brought to a halt by the outburst of wrath 
this called forth from his subjects. Once he made 
feeble war on Spain, and again he made feeble 
war on France ; but the expedition he sent against 
Cadiz failed, and the expedition he sent to 
Rochelle was beaten; and he was, in each case, 
forced to make peace without gaining anything. 
The renown of the English arms never stood 
lower than during the reigns of the first two Stu- 
arts. 

At the outset of his reign Charles sought to 
govern through Buckingham, who was entirely fit 
to be his minister, and, therefore, unfit to be 
trusted with the slightest governmental task on 
behalf of a free and great people. Under Buck- 
ingham the grossest corruption obtained — not 
only in the public service, but in the creation of 
peerages. His whole administration represented 
nothing but violence and bribery; and when he 
took command of the forces to be employed 

26 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

against Rochelle, he showed that the list of his 
qualities included complete military incapacity. 

It was after the failure at Rochelle that Charles 
summoned his third Parliament. With his first 
two he had failed to do more than quarrel, as they 
would not grant hirn supplies unless they were al- 
lowed the right to have something to say as to 
how they were to be used. He had, therefore, 
dissolved them, holding that their only function 
was to give him what may be needed. 

With his third Parliament he got on no better. 
In it two great men sprang to the front — Sir 
Thomas Wentworth, afterward Lord Strafford, 
and Sir John Eliot, who had already shown him- 
self a leader of the party that stood for free repre- 
sentative institutions as against the unbridled 
power of the King. Eliot was a man of pure and 
high character, and of dauntless resolution, though 
a good deal of a doctrinaire in his belief that Par- 
liamentary government was the cure for all the 
evils of the body politic. Wentworth, dark, able, 
imperious, unscrupulous, was a born leader, but 
he had no root of true principle in him. At the 
moment, from jealousy of Buckingham, and from 
desire to show that he would have to be placated 
if the King were awake to self-interest, he threw 
all the weight of his great power on the popular 
side. 

27 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

Instead of giving the King the money he 
wanted, Parliament formulated a Petition of 
Right, demanding such elementary measures of 
justice as that the King should agree never again 
to raise a forced loan, or give his soldiers free 
quarters on householders, or execute martial law 
in time of peace, or send whom he wished to 
prison without showing the cause for which it was 
done. The last was the provision against which 
Charles struggled hardest. The Star Chamber — 
a court which sat without a jury, and which was 
absolutely under the King's jurisdiction — had 
been one of his favorite instruments in working 
his arbitrary will. The powers of this court were 
left untouched by the Petition : yet even the ser- 
vice this court could render him was far less than 
what he could render himself if it lay in his power 
arbitrarily to imprison men without giving the 
cause. However, his need of money was so great, 
and the Commons stood so firm, that he had to 
yield, and on June 7th, in the year 1628, the Pe- 
tition of Right became part of the law of the land. 
The first step had been taken toward cutting out 
of the English Constitution the despotic powers 
which the Tudor kings had bequeathed to their 
Stuart successors. 

Immediately afterward Buckingham was assas- 
sinated by a soldier who had taken a violent 

28 




£ u 

O a, 



u 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

grudge against him, and the nation breathed freer 
with this particular stumbling-block removed, 
while it lessened the strain between the King and 
the Commons, who were bent on his impeach- 
ment. 

There were far more serious troubles ahead. If 
the King could raise money without summoning 
Parliament, he could rule absolutely. If Parlia- 
ment could control not only the raising, but the 
expenditure of money, it would be the supreme 
source of power, and the King but a figure-head; 
in other words, the government would be put upon 
the basis on which it has actually stood during 
the present century. For many reigns the Com- 
mons had been accustomed to vote to each king 
for life, at the outset of his reign, the duties on 
exports and imports, known as tonnage and 
poundage ; but during the years immediately past 
men had been forced to think much on liberty 
and self-government. Parliament was in no mood 
to surrender absolute power to the King. 

With the right to lay taxes and to supervise 
the expenditure of money — that is, to conduct 
the government — was intertwined the question of 
religion. The mass of Englishmen adhered rather 
loosely to the Anglican communion, and were 
not extreme Puritans ; on certain points, however, 
they were tinged very deeply with Calvinism. 

29 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

They were greatly angered by the attitude of 
those bishops, who under the lead of Laud 
showed themselves more hostile to Protestant 
than to Catholic dogmas. These bishops preached 
not only that the views in Church matters held 
by the bulk of Englishmen were wrong, but 
furthermore that it was the duty of every subject 
to render entire obedience to the sovereign, no 
matter what the sovereign did, and they insisted 
that parliaments were of right mere ciphers in the 
State. Such doctrines were not only irritating 
from the theological stand-point ; they also struck 
at the root of political freedom. The religious 
antagonism was accentuated by the fact that at 
this time the Protestant cause in Germany had 
touched the lowest point it ever reached during 
the Thirty Years' War, and the anger and alarm 
of the English Protestants, as they saw the Cal- 
vinists and Lutherans of Denmark and North Ger- 
many overcome, were heightened by the indiffer- 
ence, if not satisfaction, with which the King and 
the bishops looked at the struggle. 

In 1629 the Commons, under the lead of Eliot 
and Pym, took advanced ground alike on the 
questions of religion and of taxation. Pym was 
supplementing Eliot's work, which was to make 
the House of Commons the supreme authority in 
England, by striving to associate together a ma- 

30 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

jority of the members for the achievement of cer- 
tain common objects ; in other words, he was lay- 
ing the foundation of party government. Under 
the lead of these two men, the first two Parlia- 
mentary and popular leaders in the modern sense, 
the House of Commons passed resolutions de- 
manding uniformity in religious belief thoughout 
the kingdom and condemning every innovation 
in religion, and declaring enemies to the kingdom 
and traitors to its liberties whoever advised the 
levying of tonnage and poundage without the 
authority of Parliament, or whoever voluntarily 
paid those duties. The first clause hit Catholics 
and Dissenters alike, but was especially aimed at 
the bishops and their followers, who stood closest 
to the King; and the second was, of course, in- 
tended to transfer the sovereignty from the King 
to Parliament — in other words, from the King to 
the people. Charles met the challenge by dis- 
solving Parliament. Eleven years were to pass 
before another met. Meantime, the King gov- 
erned as a despot; and it must be remembered 
that when he deliberately chose thus to govern as 
a despot, responsible to no legal tribunal, he at 
once threw his subjects back on the only remedies 
which it is possible to enforce against despotism- 
deposition or death. 

Charles was bitterly angry at the sturdy inde- 
31 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

pendence shown by the Commons, and marked 
out for vengeance those who had been fore- 
most in thwarting his wishes. His course was 
easy. The Petition of Right formulated a prin- 
ciple, but as yet it offered no safeguard against 
an unscrupulous king; while the Star Chamber 
court, and the other judges for that matter, held 
office at his pleasure, and acted as his subservient 
tools in fining and imprisoning merchants who 
refused payment of the duties, or men whose acts 
or words the king chose to consider seditious, 
Eliot and some of his fellow-members were 
thrown into prison because of the culminating 
proceedings in Parliament. Eliot's comrades 
made submission and were released, but Eliot re- 
fused to acknowledge that the King, through 
his courts, had any right to meddle with what 
was done in Parliament. He took his stand 
firmly on the ground that the King was not the 
master of Parliament, and of course this could 
but mean ultimately that Parliament was master 
of the King. In other words, he was one of the 
earliest leaders of the movement which has pro- 
duced English freedom and English government 
as we now know them. He was also its martyr. 
He was kept in the Tower without air or exer- 
cise for three years, the King vindictively refus- 
ing to allow the slightest relaxation in his con- 

32 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

finement, even when it brought on consumption. 
In December, 1632, he died ; and the King's 
hatred found its last expression in denying to 
his kinsfolk the privilege of burying him in his 
Cornish home. 

Charles set eagerly to work to rule the king- 
dom by himself. To the Puritan dogma of en- 
forced unity of religious belief — utterly mischiev- 
ous, and just as much fraught with slavery to the 
soul in one sect as another — he sought, through 
Laud, to oppose the only less mischievous, be- 
cause silly, doctrine of enforced uniformity in the 
externals of public worship. Laud was a small 
and narrow man, hating Puritanism in every form, 
and persecuting bitterly every clergyman or lay- 
man who deviated in any way from what he re- 
garded as proper ecclesiastical custom. His 
tyranny was of that fussy kind which, without 
striking terror, often irritates nearly to madness. 
He was Charles's instrument in the effort to secure 
ecclesiastical absolutism. 

The instrument through which the King 
sought to establish the royal prerogative in politi- 
cal affairs was of far more formidable temper. 
Immediately after the dissolution of Parliament 
Wentworth had obtained his price from the King, 
and was appointed to be his right-hand man in 
administering the kingdom. A man of great 

33 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

shrewdness and insight, he seems to have strug- 
gled to govern well, according to his lights; but 
he despised law and acted upon the belief that 
the people should be slaves, unpermitted, as they 
were unfit, to take any share in governing them- 
selves. After awhile Laud was made archbishop ; 
and Wentworth was later made Lord Strafford. 

Wentworth and Laud, with their associates, 
when they tried to govern on such terms, were 
continually clashing with the people. A govern- 
ment thus carried on naturally aroused resistance, 
which often itself took unjustifiable forms; and 
this resistance was, in its turn, punished with re- 
volting brutality. Criticism of Laudian methods, 
or of existing social habits, might take scurrilous 
shape ; and then the critic's ears were hacked off 
as he stood in the pillory, or he was imprisoned 
for life. 

The great fight was made, not on a religious, 
but on a purely political question — that of Ship 
Money. The king wished to go to war with the 
Dutch, and to raise his fleet he issued writs, first 
to the maritime counties, and then to every shire 
in England. He consulted his judges, who 
stated that his action was legal : as well they 
might, for when a judge disagreed with him on 
any important point, he was promptly dismissed 
from office. But there was one man in the king- 

34 




Archbishop Laud. 

From the portrait at Lambeth Palace, painted by Vandyke. 
By permission of the Vn hbishop of Canterbury. 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

dom who thought differently, John Hampden, a 
Buckinghamshire 'squire, who had already once 
sat as a silent member in Parliament, together with 
another equally silent member of the same social 
standing, his nephew, Oliver Cromwell. Hamp- 
den was assessed at twenty shillings. The amount 
was of no more importance than the value of the 
tea which a century and a half later was thrown 
into Boston Harbor ; but in each case a vital prin- 
ciple — the same vital principle — was involved. 
If the King could take twenty shillings from 
Hampden without authority from the representa- 
tives of the people in Parliament assembled, then 
his rule was absolute : he could do what he 
pleased. On the other hand, if the House of 
Commons could do as it wished in granting 
money only for whatever need it chose to rec- 
ognize in the kingdom, then the House of Com- 
mons was supreme. In Hampden's view but 
one course was possible — he was for the Parlia- 
ment and the nation against the King; and he 
refused to pay the sum, facing without a murmur 
the punishment for his contumacy. 

The King and his ministers did not flinch from 
proceeding to any length against either political 
or religious opponents. Charles heartily upheld 
Laud and Wentworth in carrying out their policy 
of " thorough " ; Laud in England ; Wentworth, 

35 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

after 1633, in Ireland. "Thorough," in their 
sense of the word, meant making the State, which 
was the King, paramount in every ecclesiastical 
and political matter, and putting his interests 
above the interests, the principles, and the preju- 
dices of all classes and all parties ; paying heed to 
nothing but to what seemed right in the eyes of 
the sovereign and the sovereign's chosen advisers. 
Under Wentworth's strong hand a certain amount 
of material prosperity followed in Ireland, al- 
though chiefly among the English settlers. There 
was no such material prosperity in England; 1630, 
for instance, was a famine year. The net effect 
of the policy would in the long run have been to 
bring down a freedom-loving people to a lower 
grade of political and social development. There 
was, of course, no oppression in England in any 
way resembling such oppression as that which 
flogged the Dutch to revolt against the Spaniards. 
But it was exactly the kind of oppression which 
led, in 1776, to the American Revolution. Eliot, 
Hampden, and Pym, stood for the principles that 
were championed by Washington, Patrick Henry, 
and the Adamses. The grievances which forced 
the Long Parliament to appeal to arms were like 
those which made the Continental Congress throw 
off the sovereignty of George III. In neither 
case was there the kind of grinding tyranny which 

36 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

has led to the assassination of tyrants and the 
frantic, bloodthirsty uprising of tortured slaves. 
In each case the tyranny was in its first stage, not 
its last ; but the reason for this was simply that a 
nation of vigorous freemen will always revolt by 
the time the first stage has been reached. It was 
not possible, either for the Stuart kings or for 
George III., to go beyond a certain point, for as 
soon as that point was reached the freemen were 
called to arms by their leaders. 

However, there was the greatest reluctance 
among Englishmen to countenance rebellion, even 
for the best of causes. This reluctance was emi- 
nently justifiable. Rebellion, revolution — the 
appeal to arms to redress grievances; these are 
measures that can only be justified in extreme 
cases. It is far better to suffer any moderate evil, 
or even a very serious evil, so long as there is a 
chance of its peaceable redress, than to plunge the 
country into civil war ; and the men who head or 
instigate armed rebellions for which there is not 
the most ample justification must be held as one 
degree worse than any but the most evil tyrants. 
Between the Scylla of despotism and the Charybdis 
of anarchy there is but little to choose ; and the 
pilot who throws the ship upon one is as blame- 
worthy as he who throws it on the other. But a 
point may be reached where the people have to 

37 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

assert their rights, be the peril what it may; and 
in Great Britain this point was passed under 
Charles I. 

The first break came, not in England, but in 
Scotland. The Scotch abhorred Episcopacy; 
whereas the English had no objection whatever 
to bishops, so long as the bishops did not outrage 
the popular religious convictions. In Scotland 
the spirit of Puritanism was uppermost, and was 
already exhibiting both its strength and its weak- 
ness; its sincerity and its lack of breadth; its 
stern morality and its failure to discriminate 
between essentials and non-essentials; its loftiness 
of aim and its tendency to condemn liberality of 
thought in religion, art, literature, and science, 
alike as irreligious; its insistence on purity of life, 
and yet its unconscious tendency to promote 
hypocrisy and to drive out one form of religious 
tyranny merely to erect another. 

A man of any insight would not have striven 
to force an alien system of ecclesiastical govern- 
ment upon a people so stubborn and self-reliant, 
who were wedded to their own system of religious 
thought. But this was what Laud attempted, with 
the full approval of Charles. In 1637 he made a 
last effort to introduce the ceremonies of the Eng- 
lish Church at Edinburgh. No sooner was the 
reading of the Prayer-Book begun than the con- 

33 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

gregation burst into wild uproar, execrating it as 
no better than celebrating mass. It was essentially 
a popular revolt. The incident of Jenny Geddes's 
stool may be mythical, but it was among the 
women and men of the lower orders that the 
resistance was stoutest. The whole nation re- 
sponded to the cry, and hurried to sign a national 
Covenant, engaging to defend the Reformed re- 
ligion, and to do away with all "innovations"; 
that is, with everything in which Episcopacy dif- 
fered from Puritanism and inclined toward the 
Church of Rome. 

In England and Scotland alike the Church of 
Rome was still accepted by the people at large as 
the most dangerous of enemies. The wonderful 
career of Gustavus Adolphus had just closed. 
The Thirty Years' War — the last great religious 
struggle — was still at its height. If, in France, 
the Massacre of St. Bartholomew stood far in the 
past, the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes yet 
lay in the future. The after-glow of the fires 
of Smithfield still gleamed with lurid light in each 
sombre Puritan heart. The men who, in England, 
were most earnest about their religion held to 
their Calvinistic creed with the utmost sincerity, 
high purpose, and self-devotion : but with no little 
harshness. Theirs was a lofty creed, but one 
which, in the revolt against levity and viciousness, 

39 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

set up a standard of gloom ; and, though ready to 
fight to the death for liberty for themselves, they 
had as yet little idea of tolerating liberty in others. 
Naturally, such men sympathized with one an- 
other, and the action of the Scotch was heartily, 
though secretly, applauded by the stoutest Pres- 
byterians of England. Moreover, while menaced 
by the common oppressor, the Puritan independ- 
ents, who afterward split off from the Presbyteri- 
ans, made common cause with them, the irrecon- 
cilable differences between the two bodies not yet 
being evident. 

Soon the Scotch held a general assembly of the 
Church, composed of both clerical and lay mem- 
bers, and formally abolished Episcopacy, in spite 
of the angry protests of the King. Their action 
amounted in effect to establishing a theocracy. 
They repudiated the unlimited power of the 
King and the bishops, as men would do nowa- 
days in like case ; but they declared against lib- 
erty of thought and conduct in religious matters, 
basing their action on practically the same line of 
reasoning that influenced the very men they most 
denounced, hated, and feared. 

The King took up the glove which the Scotch 
had thrown down. He raised an army and un- 
dertook the first of what were derisively known 
as the " Bishops' Wars." But his people sympa- 

40 



W: 






a 



!^ 







West Tower, Ely Cathedral, from Monastery Close. 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 



got an army together on the Border, but it would 



thized with the Scotch rather than with him. He 



not fight, and he was forced reluctantly to treat 
for peace. Then Strafford came back from Ire- 
land and requested Charles to summon a Parlia- 
ment so that he could get funds. In April, 1640, 
the Short Parliament came together, but the Eng- 
lish spirit was now almost as high as the Scotch 
in hostility to the King, and Parliament would 
not grant anything to the King until the griev- 
ances of the people were redressed. To this de- 
mand Charles would not listen, and the Parlia- 
ment was promptly dissolved. Then, being 
heartened by Laud, and especially by Strafford, 
Charles renewed the war, only to see his army 
driven in headlong panic before the Scotch at 
Newburn. The result was that he had to try to 
patch up a peace under the direction of Strafford. 
But the Scotch would not leave the kingdom un- 
til they were paid the expenses of the war. There 
was no money to pay them, and Charles had to 
summon Parliament once more. On November 
3, 1640, the Long Parliament met at West- 
minster. 

When Oliver Cromwell took his seat in the 
Long Parliament he was forty-one years old. He 
had been born at Huntingdon on April 25, 1599, 
and by birth belonged to the lesser gentry, or up- 

41 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

per middle-class. The original name of the fam- 
ily had been Williams; it was of Welsh origin. 
There were many Cromwells, and Oliver was a 
common name among them. One of the Pro- 
tector's uncles bore the name, and remained a 
stanch Loyalist throughout the Civil War. Oli- 
ver's own father, Robert, was a man in very mod- 
erate circumstances, his estate in the town of 
Huntingdon bringing an income of some ^300 a 
year. Oliver's mother, Elizabeth Steward of Ely, 
seems to have been of much stronger character 
than his father. The Stewards, like the Crom- 
wells, were " new people," both families, like so 
many others of the day, owing their rise to the 
spoliation of the monasteries. Oliver's father was 
a brewer, and his success in the management of 
the brewery was mainly due to Oliver's mother. 
No other member of Oliver's family — neither his 
wife nor his father — influenced him as did his 
mother. She was devoted to him, and he, in turn, 
loved her tenderly and respected her deeply. He 
followed her advice when young; he established 
her in the Royal Palace of Whitehall when he 
came to greatness; and when she died he buried 
her in Westminster Abbey. As a boy he received 
his education at Huntingdon, but when seventeen 
years old was sent to Cambridge University. A 
strong, hearty young fellow; fond of horse-play 

42 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

and rough pranks — as indeed he showed himself 
to be even when the weight of the whole king- 
dom rested on his shoulders. He nevertheless 
seems to have been a fair student, laying the 
foundation for that knowledge of Greek litera- 
ture and the Latin language, and that fondness 
for books, which afterward struck the representa- 
tives of the foreign powers at London. In 1617 
his father died, and he left Cambridge. When 
twenty-one years old he was married in London, 
to Elizabeth Bouchier (who was one year older 
than he was), the daughter of a rich London fur- 
rier. She was a woman of gentle and amiable 
character, and though she does not appear to have 
influenced Cromwell's public career to any per- 
ceptible extent, he always regarded her with fond 
affection, and was always faithful to her. 

For twenty years after his marriage he lived a 
quiet life, busying himself with the management 
of his farm. Nine children were born to him, of 
whom three sons and five daughters lived to ma- 
turity. About this time his soul was first deeply 
turned toward religious matters, and, like the 
great majority of serious thinkers of the time, he 
became devoted to the Puritan theology ; indeed 
no other was possible to a representative of the pros- 
perous, independent, and religious middle - class, 
from which all the greatest Puritan leaders sprang. 

43 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

While a boy Oliver had been sent to the free 
school at Huntingdon, and his first training had 
been received under its master, the Reverend 
Thomas Beard, a zealous Puritan and Reformer, 
as well as a man of wide reading and sound 
scholarship, and lastly, an inflamed hater of the 
Church of Rome. All his surroundings, all his 
memories, were such as to make the future Dicta- 
tor of England sincerely feel that the Church of 
Rome was the arch-antagonist of all, temporal and 
spiritual, that he held most dear. In the first 
place his ancestors were among those who had 
profited by the spoliation of the monasteries ; and 
the only way to avoid uncomfortable feelings on 
the part of the spoiler is for him to show — or if 
this is not possible, to convince himself that he 
has shown — the utmost iniquity on the part of the 
despoiled. When Oliver was a small boy the 
Gunpowder Plot shook all England. When he 
was a little older Henry of Navarre was stabbed 
in Paris ; and though Henry was a cynical turn- 
coat in matters of religion, and a man of the most 
revolting licentiousness in private life, he was yet 
a great ruler of men, and had been one of the 
props of the Protestant cause. Before Oliver 
came of age the Thirty Years' War had begun 
its course. To Oliver Cromwell, warfare against 
the Church of Rome, broken by truces which, 

44 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

whether long or short, were intended only to be 
breathing-spells, must have seemed the normal 
state of things. 

In 1631 Oliver sold his paternal estate in 
Huntingdon and managed a rented farm at St. 
Ives for five years ; then he removed to Ely, in the 
fen country, and again took up farming, being 
joined by his mother and sisters. He served in 
the great Parliament which passed the Petition of 
Right, but played no part of prominence therein : 
standing stoutly, however, for Puritanism and Par- 
liamentary freedom. During the ensuing eleven 
years of unrest, while all England was making 
ready for the impending conflict, Oliver busied 
himself with his farm and his family. He showed 
himself one of the strongest bulwarks of the Puri- 
tan preachers; zealous in the endeavor to further 
the cause of religion in every way, and always 
open to appeals from the poor and the oppressed, 
of whom he was the consistent champion. When 
certain rich men, headed by the Earl of Bedford, 
endeavored to oust from some of their rights the 
poor people of the fens, Oliver headed the latter 
in their resistance. He was keenly interested in 
the trial of his kinsman, John Hampden, for re- 
fusal to pay the Ship Money ; a trial which was 
managed by the advocate Oliver St. John, his 
cousin by marriage. 

45 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

In short, Cromwell was far more concerned in 
righting specific cases of oppression than in ad- 
vancing the great principles of constitutional gov- 
ernment which alone make possible that orderly 
liberty which is the bar to such individual acts 
of wrong-doing. From the stand-point of the pri- 
vate man this is a distinctly better failing than is its 
opposite ; but from the stand-point of the states- 
man the reverse is true. Cromwell, like many a 
so-called "practical" man, would have done better 
work had he followed a more clearly defined the- 
ory ; for though the practical man is better than 
the mere theorist, he cannot do the highest work 
unless he is a theorist also. However, all Crom- 
well's close associations were with Hampden, St. 
John, and the other leaders in the movement for 
political freedom, and he acted at first in entire 
accord with their ideas : while with the religious 
side of their agitation he was in most hearty sym- 
pathy. 

It is difficult for us nowadays to realize how 
natural it seemed at that time for the Word of 
the Lord to be quoted and appealed to on every 
occasion, no matter how trivial, in the lives ot 
sincerely religious men. It is very possible that 
quite as large a proportion of people nowadays 
strive to shape their internal lives in accordance 
with the Ten Commandments and the Golden 

4 6 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

Rule ; indeed, it is probable that the proportion is 
far greater ; but professors of religion then carried 
their religion into all the externals of their lives. 
Cromwell belonged among those earnest souls 
who indulged in the very honorable dream of a 
world where civil government and social life alike 
should be based upon the Commandments set 
forth in the Bible. To endeavor to shape the 
whole course of individual existence in accord- 
ance with the hidden or half-indulged law of 
perfect righteousness, has to it a very lofty side ; 
but if the endeavor is extended to include man- 
kind at large, it has also a very dangerous side : so 
dangerous indeed that in practice the effort is apt 
to result in harm, unless it is undertaken in a 
spirit of the broadest charity and toleration ; for 
the more sincere the men who make it, the more 
certain they are to treat, not only their own prin- 
ciples, but their own passions, prejudices, vanities, 
and jealousies, as representing the will, not of 
themselves, but of Heaven. The constant appeal 
to the Word of God in all trivial matters is, more- 
over, apt to breed hypocrisy of that sanctimonious 
kind which is peculiarly repellent, and which in- 
variably invites reaction against all religious feel- 
ing and expression. 

At that day Cromwell's position in this matter 
was, at its worst, merely that of the enormous 

47 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

majority of earnest men of all sects. Each sect 
believed that it was the special repository of the 
wisdom and virtue of the Most High : and the 
most zealous of its members believed it to be their 
duty to the Most High to make all other men 
worship Him according to what they conceived 
to be His wishes. This was the mediaeval atti- 
tude, and represented the mediaeval side in Puri- 
tanism; a side which was particularly prominent 
at the time, and which, so far as it existed, marred 
the splendor of Puritan achievement. The noble- 
ness of the effort to bring about the reign of God 
on earth, the inspiration that such an effort was to 
those engaged in it, must be acknowledged by 
all ; but, in practice, we must remember that, as 
religious obligation was then commonly construed, 
it inevitably led to the Inquisition in Spain; to 
the sack of Drogheda in Ireland; to the merciless 
persecution of heretics by each sect, according to 
its power, and the effort to stifle freedom of 
thought and stamp out freedom of action. It is 
right, and greatly to be desired, that men should 
come together to search after the truth : to try to 
find out the true will of God; but in Cromwell's 
time they were only beginning to see that each 
body of seekers must be left to work out its own 
beliefs without molestation, so long as it does not 
strive to interfere with the beliefs of others. 

4 8 



THE TIMES AND THE MAN 

The great merit of Cromwell, and of the party 
of the Independents which he headed, and which 
represented what was best in Puritanism, consists 
in the fact that he and they did, dimly, but with 
ever-growing clearness, perceive this principle, 
and, with many haltings, strove to act up to it. 
The Independent or Congregational churches, 
which worked for political freedom, and held that 
each congregation of Protestants should decide 
for itself as to its religious doctrines, stood as the 
forerunners in the movement that has culminated 
in our modern political and religious liberty. How 
slow the acceptance of their ideas was, how the op- 
position to them battled on to the present century, 
will be appreciated by anyone who turns to the 
early writings of Gladstone when he was the "ris- 
ing hope of those stern Tories," whose special an- 
tipathy he afterward became. Even yet there are 
advocates of religious intolerance, but they are 
mostly of the academic kind, and there is no 
chance for any political party of the least impor- 
tance to try to put their doctrines into effect. 
More and more, at least here in the United States, 
Catholics and Protestants, Jews and Gentiles, are 
learning the grandest of all lessons — that they can 
best serve their God by serving their fellow- 
men, and best serve their fellow-men, not by 
wrangling among themselves, but by a generous 

49 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

rivalry in working for righteousness and against 
evil. 

This knowledge then lay in the future. When 
Cromwell grew to manhood he was a Puritan of 
the best type, of the type of Hampden and Mil- 
ton ; sincere, earnest, resolute to do good as he saw 
it, more liberal than most of his fellow-religionists, 
and saved from their worst eccentricities by his 
hard common-sense, but not untouched by their 
gloom, and sharing something of their narrowness. 
Entering Parliament thus equipped, he could not 
fail to be most drawn to the religious side of the 
struggle. He soon made himself prominent; 
a harsh-featured, red-faced, powerfully-built man, 
whose dress appeared slovenly in the eyes of the 
courtiers — who was no orator, but whose great 
power soon began to impress friends and enemies 
alike. 



50 



II 

THE LONG PARLIAMENT AND THE CIVIL WAR 

KING CHARLES'S theory was that Parlia- 
ment had met to grant him the money 
he needed. The Parliament's conviction was 
that it had come together to hold the King and 
his servants to accountability for what they had 
done, and to provide safeguards against a repeti- 
tion of the tyranny of the last eleven years. Par- 
liament held the whip hand, for the King dared 
not dissolve it until the Scots were paid, lest their 
army should march at once upon London. 

The King had many courtiers who hated pop- 
ular government, but he had only one great and 
terrible man of the type that can upbuild tyran- 
nies; and, with the sure instinct of mortal fear 
and mortal hate, the Commons struck at the min- 
ister whose towering genius and unscrupulous 
fearlessness might have made his master absolute 
on the throne. A week after the Long Parlia- 
ment met, in November, 1 640, Pym, who at once 
took the lead in the House, moved the impeach- 
ment of Strafford, in a splendid speech which set 

51 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

forth the principles for which the popular party 
was contending. It was an appeal from the rule 
of irresponsible will to the rule of law, for the vi- 
olation of which every man could be held account- 
able before some tribunal. About the same time 
Laud was thrown into the Tower ; but at the mo- 
ment there was no thought of taking his life, for 
the ecclesiastic was not — like the statesman — a 
mighty and fearsome figure, and though he had 
done as much evil as his feeble nature permitted, 
he had unquestionably been far more conscientious 
than the great Earl. Strafford had sinned against 
the light, for he had championed liberty until 
the King paid him his price and made him the 
most dangerous foe of his former friends. He 
now defended himself with haughty firmness, and 
the King strove in every way to help him. But 
the Commons passed a Bill of Attainder against 
him : and then Charles committed an act of fatal 
meanness and treachery. There was not one 
thing that Strafford had done, save by his sov- 
ereign's wish and in his sovereign's interest. By 
every consideration of honor and expediency 
Charles was bound to stand by him. But the 
Stuart King flinched. Deeming it for his own 
interest to let Strafford be sacrificed, he signed 
the death-warrant. "Put not your trust in 
Princes," said the fallen Earl when the news was 

52 




John Pym. 

From the portrait by Cornelius Janssen at the Victoria and Albert 
Museum, South Kensington. 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

brought to him, and he went to the scaffold un- 
daunted. 

Cromwell showed himself to be a man of mark 
in this Parliament ; but he was not among the 
very foremost leaders. He had no great un- 
derstanding of constitutional government, no full 
appreciation of the vital importance of the reign 
of law to the proper development of orderly lib- 
erty. His fervent religious ardor made all ques- 
tions affecting faith and doctrine close to him; 
and his hatred of corruption and oppression in- 
clined him to take the lead whenever any question 
arose of dealing, either with the wrongs done by 
Laud in the course of his religious persecutions, 
or with the irresponsible tyranny of the Star 
Chamber, and the sufferings of its victims. The 
bent of Cromwell's mind was thus shown right in 
the beginning of his parliamentary career. His 
desire was to remedy specific evils. He was too 
impatient to found the kind of legal and constitu- 
tional system which could alone prevent the re- 
currence of such evils. This tendency, thus early 
shown, explains, at least in part, why it was that 
later he deviated from the path trod by Hamp- 
den, and afterward by Washington and Washing- 
ton's colleagues : showing himself unable to build 
up free government or to establish the reign of 
law, until he was finally driven to substitute his 

53 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

own personal government for the personal gov- 
ernment of the King whom he had helped to de- 
throne, and put to death. Cromwell's extreme 
admirers treat his impatience of the delays and 
shortcomings of ordinary constitutional and legal 
proceedings as a sign of his greatness. It was just 
the reverse. In great crises it m aybe n ecessary to 
overturn constitutions and disregard statutes 1 ju st 
as it may be necessary to establish a vigilance 
committee, or take refuge in lynch law ; but such a 
remedy is always dangerous, even when absolutely 
necessary ; and the moment it becomes the habit- 
ual remedy, it is a proof that society is going 
backward. Of this retrogression the deeds of the 
strong man who sets himself above the law may 
be partly the cause and partly the consequence ; 
but they are always the signs of decay. 

The Commons had passed a law authorizing 
the election of a Parliament at least once in three 
years : which at once took away the King's power 
to attempt to rule without a Parliament; and in 
May they extorted from the King an act that they 
should not be dissolved without their own con- 
sent. Ship Money was declared to be illegal ; the 
Star Chamber was abolished; and Tonnage and 
Poundage were declared illegal, unless levied by 
Act of Parliament. Then the Scotch army was 
paid off and returned across the Border. The best 

54 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

work of the Commons had now been done, and if 
they could have trusted the King it would have 
been well for them to dissolve ; but the King 
could not be trusted, and, moreover, the religious 
question was pushed to the front. Laud's actions 
— actions taken with the full consent and by the 
advice of the King — had rendered the Episcopal 
form of Church government obnoxious. The 
House of Commons was Presbyterian, and it 
speedily became evident that it wished to estab- 
lish the Presbyterian system of Church govern- 
ment in the place of Episcopacy; and, moreover, 
that it intended to be just as intolerant on behalf 
of Presbyterianism as the King and Laud had 
been on behalf of Episcopacy. There was a strong 
moderate party which the King might have ral- 
lied about him, but his incurable bad faith made 
it impossible to trust his protestations. He now 
made terms with the Scotch, in accordance with 
which they agreed not to interfere between him- 
self and his English subjects in religious matters. 
He hoped thereby to deprive the Presbyterian 
English of their natural allies across the Border. 
This conduct, of itself, would have inflamed the 
increasing religious bitterness ; but it was raised 
to madness by the news that came from Ireland 
at this time. 

Inspired by the news of the revolt in Scotland 
55 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

and the troubles in England, the Irish had risen 
against their hereditary oppressors. It was the 
revolt of a race which rose to avenge wrongs as 
bitter as ever one people inflicted upon another; 
and it was inevitable that it should be accom- 
panied by appalling outrages in certain places. 
It was on these outrages that the English fixed 
their eyes, naturally ignoring the generations of 
English evil-doing which had brought them about. 
A furious cry for revenge arose. Every Puritan, 
from Oliver Cromwell down, regarded the mas- 
sacres as a fresh proof that Roman Catholics ought 
to be treated, not as professors of another Chris- 
tian creed, but as cruel public enemies; and their 
burning desire for vengeance took the form, not 
merely of hostility to Roman Catholicism, but to 
the Episcopacy, which they regarded as in the last 
resort an ally of Catholicism. 

In November, 1641, the Puritan majority in 
Parliament passed the Grand Remonstrance — 
which was a long indictment of Charles's con- 
duct. Cromwell had now taken his place as 
among the foremost of the Root and Branch 
Party, who demanded the abolition of Episco- 
pacy, and whose action drove all those who be- 
lieved in the Episcopal form of Church govern- 
ment into the party of the King. He threw him- 
self with eager vehemence into the Party of the 

56 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

Remonstrance, and after its bill was passed told 
Falkland that if it had been rejected by Parlia- 
ment he would have sold all he had, and never 
again seen England. 

For a moment the Puritan violence, which cul- 
minated in the Grand Remonstrance, provoked a 
reaction in favor of the King ; but the King, by 
another act of violence, brought about a counter- 
reaction. In January, 1642, he entered the 
House of Commons, and in person ordered the 
seizure and imprisonment in the Tower of the 
five foremost leaders of the Puritan party, in- 
cluding Pym and Hampden. Such a course 
on his part could be treated only as an invita- 
tion to civil war. London, which before had 
been wavering, now rallied to the side of the 
Commons; the King left Whitehall; and it was 
evident to all men that the struggle between 
him and the Parliament had reached a point 
where it would have to be settled by the appeal 
to arms. 

In August, 1642, King Charles planted the 
royal standard on the Castle of Nottingham, and 
the Civil War began. The Parliamentary forces 
were led by the Earl of Essex. They included 
some 20 regiments of infantry and 75 troops of 
horse, each 60 strong, raised and equipped by its 
own captain. Oliver Cromwell was captain of 

57 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

the Sixty-seventh Troop, and his kinsfolk and 
close friends were scattered through the cavalry 
and infantry. His sons served with or under 
him. One brother-in-law was quartermaster of 
his own troop ; a second was captain of another 
troop. His future son-in-law, Henry Ireton, was 
captain of yet another; a cousin and a nephew 
were cornets. Another cousin, John Hampden, 
was colonel of a regiment of foot ; so was Crom- 
well's close friend and neighbor, the after-time 
Earl of Manchester, who was much under his 
influence. 

It was nearly a hundred years since England 
had been the scene of serious fighting, and Scot- 
land had witnessed nothing more than brawls 
during that time. Elizabeth's war with Spain 
had been waged upon the ocean. However, 
thousands of English and Scotch adventurers 
had served in the Netherlands and in High 
Germany under the Dutch and Swedish gen- 
erals. In both the Royal and Parliamentary 
armies there was a sprinkling of men — es- 
pecially in the upper ranks of the officers — who 
had had practical experience of war on a large 
scale. The English people offered exceptionally 
fine material for soldiers; the population was still 
overwhelmingly rural and agricultural. In the 
cities the hardy mechanics and craftsmen were 

58 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

f accustomed to sports in which physical prowess 
; played a great part. The agricultural classes 
' were far above the peasant serfs of Germany and 
France ; and the gentry and yeomanry were ac- 
customed to the use of the horse and the fowling- 
piece, and were devoted to field-sports. In 
courage, in hardihood, in intelligence, the level 
was high. 

Although gunpowder had been in use for a 
couple of centuries, progress toward the modern 
arms of precision had been so slow that close- 
quarter weapons were still, on the whole, su- 
perior; and shock tactics rather than fire tactics 
were decisive. Artillery, though used on the 
field of battle, was never there a controlling 
factor, being of chief use in the assault of fortified 
places. The musketeers took so long to load 
their clumsy weapons that they could be used to 
best advantage only when protected, and they 
played a less important part on a pitched field 
than the great bodies of pikemen with which 
they were mingled. In England the cavalry 
had completely the upper hand of the infantry. 
It was used, not merely to finish the fight, but 
to smash unbroken and unshaken bodies of 
foot; and so great was its value in the open 
field that every effort was made by the com- 
manders on both sides to keep it at the largest 

59 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

possible ratio to the whole army. Every de- 
cisive battle of the Civil War was made such 
by the cavalry. The arrangement of the armies 
was, invariably, with the infantry in the centre, 
the pikemen and the musketeers ordinarily al- 
ternating in clumps, while the cavalry was on I 
both wings. The dragoons, though mounted, 
habitually fought on foot with their fire-pieces. 
Lancers were rarely used. The heavy cavalry 
were clad in cuirasses, and armed with long, 
straight swords and pistols. The light cavalry 
usually wore the buff coat, sometimes with a 
breast-piece, always with a helmet; and in ad- 
dition to their sword and pistols, carried a carbine. 
Throughout Europe, at this time, cavalry 
trusted altogether too much to their clumsy fire- 
arms, save when handled by some great natural 
leader of horse; and, in consequence, on the Con- 
tinent, the infantry had won the upper hand. But 
it happened in the English Civil War that the 
only great leaders developed were cavalrymen; 
and so the horse retained throughout the mastery 
over the foot ; although, as each arm was always 
pitted against the same arm in the opposing forces, 
the struggle frequently wore itself out before the 
victorious horse and victorious foot, if they be- 
longed to different parties, could fight it out 
between them. 

60 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

The Civil War opened with just such blunder- 
ing and indecisive fighting as marked the opening 
of the American Civil War two centuries later. 
There was no hard and fast line, whether geo- 
graphically or of caste, between the two parties; 
in every portion of England, and in every rank 
of society, there were to be found adherents both 
of the King and of the Commons; but, as a whole, 
the east and south of England were for the Par- 
liament; the north and west were Royalist. The 
bulk of the aristocracy stood for the King; the 
bulk of the lesser gentry and yeomanry were 
against him. The revolutionary movement — as 
in America in 1776 — received its main strength 
from the lesser gentry, small farmers, tradesmen, 
and upper-class mechanics and handicraftsmen. 
In America in 1776 there was no proletariat. So 
far as there was one in England in 1642, it took 
no interest in the struggle. The peasantry, the 
mass of the agricultural laborers, were inclined 
toward the King, though the men immediately 
above them in social position, who represented 
the lowest rank that had political influence, were 
the other way. The townsmen were generally 
for the Parliament. 

In comparing the English Civil War of the 
seventeenth century with the American Civil 
War of the nineteenth, there are some curious 

61 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

points of similarity, no less than some very sharp 
contrasts. During the two centuries there had 
been a great growth in esteem for fixity of prin- 
ciple. In the English Civil War nothing was 
more common than for a man to change sides, 
and there was treachery even on the field of battle 
itself; whereas, in the American Civil War, 
though many of the leaders, like Lee and Thomas, 
were in great doubt as to the proper course to 
follow, yet when sides had once been taken, there 
was no flinching and no looking back. Moreover, 
there was far greater intensity of popular feeling 
in the American Civil War ; even the States that 
were divided in opinion at the outset held no 
considerable mass of population which did not 
soon throw its weight on one side or the other; 
whereas, in the English Civil War there were 
large bodies of men who strove to avoid declar- 
ing for either side. At the very end of the con- 
test, tens of thousands of persons, mainly peasants, 
organized under the title of Clubmen, with the 
avowed purpose of holding the scales even be- 
tween the two sets of combatants, and of looking 
out for their own interests. The American Civil 
War was fought for the right of secession, and 
efforts were made — in Kentucky, for instance — 
to establish the right of a locality to be neutral. 
The " state rights " theory reached an almost equal 

62 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

development in some of the English counties dur- 
ing the Cromwellian contest. Yorkshire at one 
time declared for neutrality. The trained bands 
of Cornwall, when the Royalist forces were driven 
back within their borders, promptly turned out 
and drove off the pursuing Parliamentarians, but 
refused to obey orders to leave the county in pur- 
suit of their foes, and disbanded to their own 
homes. Later, they repeated exactly the same 
course of procedure. There were at times local 
truces, or agreements as to the conditions of the 
contest in particular localities. 

On both sides " associations " were formed, 
consisting of special groups of counties banded 
together intimately for the purposes of defence. 
The most important of these, the Eastern Associa- 
tion, included Cromwell's own home, taking in 
all of the middle East. This region was through- 
out the contest the backbone of resistance to 
the King. Its people were strongly Puritan in 
feeling, and it was they who gave Cromwell his 
strength: for they gave him his Ironsides; and 
furnished the famous New Model for the Parlia- 
mentary army which finished the war. 

At the outset of the war many of the nobles 
raised regiments from among their own tenants, 
and the armies were of picturesque look, each 
regiment having its own uniform. The Guards 

63 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

of Lord Essex adopted the buff leather coat, 
which afterward became the uniform of the whole 
Roundhead army. Hampden's regiment was in 
green ; the London trained bands in bright scarlet. 
Other regiments were clad in blue or gray. In 
the Cavalier army there were foot-guards in white 
and foot-guards in red ; and among their horse, 
the Life Guards of the King — composed of lords 
and gentlemen who had no separate commands — 
wore plumed casques over their long curled locks, 
embroidered lace collars over their glittering cui- 
rasses, gay scarfs, gilded sword-belts, and great- 
boots of soft leather doubled down below the 
knee. 

The history of the English Civil War, like the 
history of the American Revolutionary War and 
the American Civil War, teaches two lessons. 
First, it shows that the average citizen of a civil- 
ized community requires months of training be- 
fore he can be turned into a good soldier, and 
that raw levies — no matter how patriotic — are, 
under normal conditions, helpless before smaller 
armies of trained and veteran troops, and cannot 
strike a finishing blow even when pitted against 
troops of their own stamp. In the second place 
it teaches a lesson, which at first sight seems con- 
tradictory of the first, but is in reality not in the 
least so; namely, that there is nothing sacrosanct 

6 4 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

in the trade of the soldier. It is a trade which 
can be learned without special difficulty by any 
man who is brave and intelligent, who realizes 
the necessity of obedience, and who is already 
gifted with physical hardihood and is accustomed 
to the use of the horse and of weapons, to endur- 
ing fatigue and exposure, and to acting on his 
own responsibility, taking care of himself in the 
open. 

Cromwell's, troops were not regulars, like the 
professional soldiers of the Thirty Years' War; 
they were volunteers. After two or three years' 
service they became the finest troops that Europe 
could then show; just as by 1864 the volunteers 
of Grant and Lee had reached a grade of per- 
fection which made them, for their own work, 
superior to any other of the armies then in exist- 
ence. 

Under modern conditions, in a great civilized 
state, the regular army is composed of officers 
who have as a rule been carefully trained to their 
work; who possess remarkably fine physique, 
and who are accustomed to the command of 
men and to taking the lead in emergencies ; and 
the enlisted men have likewise been picked out 
with great care as to their bodily development ; 
have been drilled until they handle themselves, 
their horses, and their weapons admirably, can 

65 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

cook for themselves, and are trained to the en- 
durance of hardship and exposure under the con- 
ditions of march and battle. An ordinary volun- 
teer or militia regiment from an ordinary civilized 
community, on the other hand, no matter how 
enthusiastic or patriotic, or how intelligent, is of- 
ficered by lawyers, merchants, business men, or 
their sons, and contains in its ranks clerks, me- 
chanics, or farmers' lads of varying physique, who 
have to be laboriously taught how to shoot and 
how to ride, and, above all, how to cook and to 
take care of themselves and make themselves 
comfortable in the open, especially when tired 
out by long marches, and when the weather 
is bad. At the outset such a regiment is, of 
course, utterly inferior to a veteran regular regi- 
ment, but after it has been in active service in 
the field for a year or two, so that its weak men 
have been weeded out, and its strong men have 
learned their duties — which can be learned far 
more rapidly in time of war than in time of peace 
— it becomes equal to any regiment. Moreover, 
if a regular regiment consists of raw recruits and 
is officered by men who have learned their profes- 
sion only in the barracks and the study and on 
the parade ground, it may be a cause of very 
disagreeable surprise to those who have grown 
to regard the word " regular " as a kind of fetich, 

66 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

Again, a volunteer regiment may have the wis- 
dom to select officers for the highest positions who 
know how to handle men, who have seen actual 
soldiering, who possess natural capacity for leader- 
ship, eagerness to learn, and the good sense to 
know their own shortcomings; and the rank and 
file may be men of adventurous temper, already 
skilful riflemen, and of great bodily hardihood, ac- 
customed to exposure, accustomed to cook — that 
is to say, to take care of their stomachs — to live 
in the open, to endure hardship and fatigue, and 
to take advantage of cover in battle. Such a 
regiment, especially if raised on the frontier, may, 
from the outset, prove itself equal to or better 
than any ordinary regular regiment — as has recent- 
ly been shown by our troops in the Philippines, by 
the Australians and Canadians in South Africa, and, 
above all, by the Boers; and as was shown nearly 
a century ago by Hofer's Tyrolese and Andrew 
Jackson's backwoodsmen. Of course, no good 
traits will avail in the least if men are possessed 
with the belief that they cannot be taught any- 
thing, if they are not eager to obey and to 
learn ; or if they do not possess a natural fighting 
edge. 

So it is with the men in high command. The 
careful training in body and mind, and especially 
in character, gained in an academy like West 

67 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

Point, and the subsequent experience in the field, 
endow the regular officer with such advantages 
that, in any but a long war, he cannot be over- 
taken even by the best natural fighter. In the 
American Civil War, for instance, the greatest 
leaders were all West Pointers. Yet even there, 
by the end of the contest both armies had pro- 
duced regimental, brigade, and division com- 
manders, who though originally from civil life, 
had learned to know their business exactly as 
well as the best regular officers ; and there was at 
least one such commander — Forrest — who, in his 
own class, was unequalled. If in a war the regu- 
lar officers prove to have been trained merely to 
the pedantry of their profession, and do not hap- 
pen to number men of exceptional ability in their 
ranks, then sooner or later the men who are born 
soldiers will come to the front, even though they 
have been civilians until late in life. 

None of the men on the Parliamentary side 
who had received their training in the Continental 
armies amounted to much. On the Royalist side 
the only professional soldier who made his mark 
was Rupert; and Rupert, after a year or two, was 
decisively beaten by Cromwell — a great natural 
military genius, who, although a civilian till after 
forty, showed an astonishing aptitude in grasping 
the essentials of his new profession. His only 

68 




Prince Rupert. 

From the portrait by Vandyke at Hinchingbrooke. 
By permission of the Rirl of Sandwich. 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

military rival in the war was Montrose, who was 
also not a professional soldier. 

In September King Charles had gathered a 
force of 10,000 men at Nottingham, while Essex 
was getting together a larger army not far off, at 
Northampton. The wealth of the kingdom was 
with the Parliament, which also possessed the 
arsenal, the fleet, and the principal ports. On 
the other hand, man for man, the King's troops 
were superior to the Parliament's, especially in 
the most dreaded arm of the service, the horse. 
The fervid zealots who, like John Bunyan, en- 
tered the Parliamentary army, were never in the 
majority, and needed peculiar training to bring 
out their remarkable soldierly qualities. The so- 
ber, thrifty, religious middle class — which was the 
backbone of the Parliamentary strength — had no 
special aptitude for military service. If its mem- 
bers could once be put in the army and kept 
there a sufficient length of time, their qualities 
made them excellent soldiers; but, as a whole, 
they were not men of very adventurous temper, 
and had had no such training in arms, or in the 
sports akin to war, as inclined them to rush into 
the army. On the other hand, the Royalist nobles 
and squires, and their game-keepers, grooms, and 
hard-riding kinsmen, with their taste for field- 
sports, their love of adventure, and their high 

69 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

sense of warlike honor, made splendid material 
out of which to organize an army, and especially 
cavalry. In consequence, for the first half of the 
war the Royalist cavalry was overwhelmingly su- 
perior to the Parliamentary cavalry, composed as 
it was of men bought with the money of the bour- 
geoisie, who had no particular heart in their work ; 
who were timid horsemen and unskilled swords- 
men. The difference in favor of the Royalist 
horse was as marked as the superiority of the 
Confederate horse in the American Civil War, 
under leaders like Stuart, Morgan, and Basil 
Duke; until time was afforded, in the one case 
for the growth of Cromwell, in the other for the 
development of leaders like Sheridan and Wil- 
son. 

Cromwell had already shown himself very act- 
ive. He had seized the magazine of the Castle 
of Cambridge, and secured the University plate, 
which was being sent to the King. He had raised 
volunteers and expended money freely out of his 
own scanty means. His troop of horse was, from 
the beginning, utterly different from most of the 
Parliamentary cavalry; it was composed of his 
own neighbors, yeomen and small farmers, hard, 
serious men, whose grim natures were thrilled by 
the intense earnestness of their leader, and whom 
he steadily drilled into good horsemanship and 

JO 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

swordsmanship. His chaplains always played an 
important part; one of them, Hugh Peters, was 
a man of mark, who joined ability to high char- 
acter. 

The King's cavalry was led by Prince Rupert, 
a dashing swordsman and horseman, a born cav- 
alry leader, who, though only twenty-three, had 
already learned his trade in the wars of the Con- 
tinent. Rupert opened the real fighting, scatter- 
ing a large body of Parliamentary horse in panic 
rout when he struck them near Powick, on the 
Severn. 

In October the King marched on London, and 
at Edgehill met the army of Essex. Each side 
drew up, with the infantry in the centre, the cav- 
alry on the flanks. On the King's side there was 
much jealousy among the different generals, and 
some insubordination, but far more activity and 
eagerness for fight than the Parliamentary troops 
displayed. The battle was fought on the after- 
noon of October 23d, and the Parliamentary army 
was demoralized at the outset by the treacherous 
desertion of a regiment commanded by a man 
most inappropriately named Sir Faithful For- 
tescue. He moved out of the ranks and joined 
Rupert's horse. Rupert charged with headlong 
impetuosity, and by his fury and decision so over- 
awed the Parliamentary horse opposed to him 

71 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

that they did not wait the shock, but galloped 
wildly off, actually dispersing the nearest infantry 
regiments of their own side. Rupert then showed 
the characteristic shortcoming which always im- 
paired the effect of his daring prowess. He never 
could keep his men in hand after they had scat- 
tered the foe ; he never kept a sufficient reserve 
with which to meet a counter-stroke. None but 
a great master of war could withstand his first 
shock ; but after the first shock he was no longer 
dangerous. At Edgehill his horse followed the 
routed left wing of the Parliamentarians until 
they became as completely scattered as their 
beaten foes. He struck the Parliamentary bag- 
gage-train, which was defended by Hampden 
with a couple of infantry regiments, and his scat- 
tered troopers were beaten back when he attempt- 
ed to take it. 

Meanwhile, the Royalist horse of the left wing 
had fallen with the same headlong fury on the 
Parliamentary right, but had only struck a small 
portion of the Parliamentary cavalry. These they 
drove in rout before them, themselves following 
in hot pursuit. The result was, that the bulk 
of the Parliamentary foot, and a portion of the 
right wing of the Parliamentary horse, including 
Oliver Cromwell's troop, were left face to face 
with the Royalist foot, which was inferior in 

72 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

numbers; and falling on it, after a desperate 
struggle they got the upper hand and forced it 
back. Rupert at last began to gather his horse 
together to face the victorious Roundhead foot; 
and as night fell, the two armies were still fronting 
each other. The King advanced on London in 
November, but was unable to force his way into y 
the city, and fell back. 

The war had not opened well for the Parlia- 
mentary side, and their especial weakness was 
evidently in cavalry — the arm by which decisive 
battles in the open field were won. Cromwell, 
with unerring eye, saw the weakness and started 
to remedy it. It is about this time that his fam- 
ous conversation with Hampden took place. Said 
Cromwell : " Your troops are most of them old 
decayed serving-men and tapsters, and such kind 
of fellows ; and their troops are gentlemen's sons, 
younger sons, and persons of quality; do you 
think that the spirits of such base, mean fellows 
will ever be able to encounter gentlemen that 
have honor and courage and resolution in them ? 
. . . You must get men of a spirit; and 
take it not ill what I say — I know you will not — 
of a spirit that is likely to go on as far as gentle- 
men will go, or else you will be beaten still. 
. . . I raised such men as had the fear of God 
before them, as made some conscience of what 

73 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

they did, and from that day forward they were 
never beaten." 

The famous Presbyterian clergyman, Baxter, 
who was by no means friendly to Cromwell, de- 
scribed his special care to get religious men into 
his troop ; men of greater intelligence than com- 
mon soldiers, who enlisted, not for the money, but 
from an earnest sense of public duty. Naturally, 
said Baxter, these troopers "having more than 
ordinary wit and resolution had more than ordi- 
nary success." 

By another writer of the time, Cromwell's horse 
are described as " freeholders and freeholders' sons, 
who upon matter of conscience engaged in this 
quarrel ; and thus being well-armed within by the 
satisfaction of their own consciences, and without 
by good iron arms, they would as one man stand 
firmly and charge desperately." Cromwell at once 
distinguished himself among his contemporaries, 
alike by the absolute obedience he rendered to 
his superiors, and by the incessant, unwearying 
activity with which he drilled his men in the use 
of their weapons and horses. He was speedily 
promoted to a colonelcy. In a news-letter of the 
time his regiment was described as composed of 
"brave men; well disciplined. No man swears 
but he pays his twelvepence ; if he be drunk he 
is set in the stocks or worse; if one calls the 

74 



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Fac-simile of Letter from Oliver Cromwell to Mr. Storie, written J|i 

From the orilsl 






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Vthil 



■*m^ — .^^v^aMfenBa ti^J Mi WMH 



5; said to be the earliest extant letter in Cromwell's handwriting. 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

other Roundhead, he is cashiered; insomuch that 
the counties where they come leap for joy of them, 
and come in and join with them. How happy 
were it if all the forces were thus disciplined ! " 
Cromwell suppressed all plundering with an iron 
hand. An eminently practical man, not in the 
least a theoretical democrat, but imbued with 
that essence of democracy which prompts a man 
to recognize his fellows for what they really are, 
without regard to creed or caste, it speedily be- 
came known that under him anyone would have 
a fair show according to his merits. He realized 
to the full that the quality of troops was of vastly 
more consequence than their numbers; that only 
the best men can be made the best soldiers; and 
these best men themselves will make but poor 
soldiers unless they have good training. His 
troops proved what iron discipline, joined to stern 
religious enthusiasm, could accomplish; just as 
later their immense superiority to the forces of the 
Scotch Covenanters showed that religious and 
patriotic enthusiasm, by itself, is but a poor sub- 
stitute for training and discipline. In one of his 
letters he writes : " I beseech you, be careful what 
captains of horse you choose; what men be 
mounted. A few honest men are better than 
numbers. Some time they must have for exer- 
cise. If you choose godly, honest men to be 

75 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

captains of horse, honest men will follow them, 
and they will be careful to mount such. I had 
rather have a plain russet-coated captain that 
knows what he fights for, and loves what he 
knows, than that which you call a gentleman, and 
is nothing else. I honor a gentleman that is so 
indeed. ... It may be it provoked some 
spirit to see such plain men made captains of 
horse. . . . Better plain men than none ; but 
best to have men patient of work, faithful and 
conscientious in employment." 

Ordinarily, Cromwell was able to get for his 
leaders men who were gentlemen in the technical 
sense of the term, but again and again there forged 
to the front under him men like Pride, whose 
natural talents had to supply the place of birth 
and breeding. He writes again : " My troops in- 
crease; I have a lovely company; you would 
respect them did you know them. . . . They 
are honest, sober Christians; they expect to be 
used as men." Again he writes, when his Pres- 
byterian colleagues were showing a tendency to 
oppress and drive out of the army men whose 
religious beliefs did not square with theirs: 
"Surely, you are not well-advised thus to turn off 
one so faithful to the cause, and so able to serve 
you as this man (a certain colonel). Give me 
leave to tell you I cannot be of your judgment. 

76 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

If a man notorious for wickedness, for oaths, for 
drinking, hath as great a share in your affection 
as one who fears an oath, who fears to sin. . . . 
Ay, but the man is an ' Anabaptist ' ! Are you 
sure of that? Admit he be, shall that render 
him incapable to serve the public? Sir, the state, 
in choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of 
their opinions: if they be willing faithfully to 
serve it, that satisfies. . . . Take heed of being 
sharp or too easily sharpened by others, against 
those to whom you can object little, but that they 
square not with you in every opinion concerning 
matters of religion." 

In these sentences lies the justification of gen- 
uine democracy, of genuine religious liberty, and 
toleration by the state of religious differences. 
They were uttered by a man far in advance of the 
temper of his age. He was not sufficiently ad- 
vanced to extend his toleration to Roman Cath- 
olics, and even extending it as far as he did he 
was completely out of touch with the majority of 
his fellow-countrymen; for the great bulk — both 
Episcopalians and Presbyterians — were bitterly 
hostile to the toleration of even inconsiderable 
differences of doctrine and ritual. The ideal after 
which Cromwell strove, though lower than that to 
which we of a more fortunate age have attained, 
was yet too high to be reached in his day. Never- 

77 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

theless, it was a good thing to have the standard 
set up; and once the mark which he had estab- 
lished was reached, it was certain that the spirit 
of toleration would go much farther. As soon 
as Baptists and Congregationalists, no less than 
Episcopalians and Presbyterians, were tolerated 
by the state for the reasons he gave, it was sure to 
become impossible to refuse toleration to Catho- 
lics and Unitarians. 

We must honor Cromwell for his aspirations 
toward the ideal, but we must acknowledge how 
far short of reaching it he fell. At this very time 
he was handling without gloves the Episcopalian 
clergy. In order to secure the assistance of the 
Scotch, Parliament had determined to take the 
Covenant, which made the state religion of Eng- 
land the same form of lofty, but intolerant, Pres- 
byterianism that obtained in Scotland. Under the 
decision of the Government the ritual of the 
Church of England was forcibly suppressed, and 
there was no little harrying of Episcopal clergy 
and vandal destruction of ancient art symbolism 
by the Puritan zealots. " Leave off your fooling 
and come down, sir ! " said Cromwell, walking 
into Ely Cathedral, where the clergyman had 
persisted in the choir service ; and there was no 
choice but to obey. 

In 1643 Cromwell forged to the front as al- 
78 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

most the only steadily successful Parliamentary 
commander. To marvellous energy, fervid zeal, 
great resourcefulness, fertility of invention, and 
individual initiative, he added the unerring in- 
sight of the born cavalry leader. He soon saw 
that the true weapon of the cavalryman was the 
horse; and, discarding the carbines with which 
his troop had first been armed, he taught them 
to rely upon the shock of a charging, close-knit 
mass of men and horses trained to move rapidly 
as a unit. 

He was ceaseless in his efforts to get his men 
paid, fed, and equipped. Like his great friend, 
Sir Thomas Fairfax, though he stopped all plun- 
dering, he levied heavy fines on the estates of the 
Royalists, and by these means, and by assessments 
from the Association, and by voluntary loans and 
contributions, he was able to keep his men well 
equipped. 

There was no comprehensive strategy in the 
fighting this year ; but the balance of the isolated 
expeditions undertaken inclined in favor of the 
King. Cromwell appears clearly, for the first 
time, as a successful military leader in May, near 
Grantham. He had under him twelve troops. 
The Cavaliers much outnumbered him. Never- 
theless, when, after some preliminary firing from 
the dragoons on both sides, Cromwell charged at 

79 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

a round trot, the Cavaliers, instead of meeting the 
charge, received it and were broken and routed. 
The fight was of great value as being the first in 
which the Parliamentary horse beat a superior 
number of Royalist horse. Cromwell was as yet 
learning his trade. On this occasion he hesitated 
a long time about charging, and only charged at 
all when it became evident that his opponents 
would not; and he owed his victory to the in- 
competence of the Royalist commander. It was 
an invaluable lesson to him. 

A great deal of scrambling, confused, and 
rather pointless warfare followed. Rupert and 
Hampden encountered each other, and Hampden 
was defeated and killed. Hampden's great col- 
league, Pym, died later in the year, just after 
having brought about the league with Scotland — 
one of the first-fruits of which was the trial and 
execution of Laud. Presbyterianism was now 
dominant, and set itself to enforce everywhere • 
the rigid rule of clerical orthodoxy. Against this 
the Independents began to raise their voices; but 
the real force which was to gain them their vic- 
tory over both Royalist and Presbyterian was as 
yet hidden. Cromwell's Ironsides — as they were 
afterward termed when Rupert christened Crom- 
well himself by that name — the regiments which 
he raised and drilled after his own manner from 

80 











i 






\, 








John Hampden. 

From the portrait by Robert Walker at Port Eliot, 
By permission ol the Karl of St. Germans, 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

the Eastern Association, these represented the 
real power of the Independents, and these were 
not yet recognized as the heart and right arm of 
the army. 

Cromwell held Nottingham, where the Royal- 
ists attacked him and he beat them off. He took 
Burleigh House, which was held by a strong 
Royalist garrison; then, in July, 1643, he ad- 
vanced to rescue the Parliamentary general, Lord 
Willoughby, who was besieged at Gainsborough 
by a division of Newcastle's army. About a 
mile and a half out of town he met the cavalry 
of Lord Cavendish, which was drawn up at the 
top of a hill. To attack him it was necessary to 
advance up steep slopes, honeycombed by rabbit 
burrows; but Cromwell's squadrons were already 
remarkable alike for flexibility and steadiness, 
and their leader knew both how to prepare his 
forces and how to take daring advantage of every 
opportunity that offered. As his leading troops 
struggled to the top of the hill Cavendish's horse- 
men advanced, but the Cromwellian troopers, 
closing up, charged them at once. There was a 
stiff contest, but as the rest of the Parliamentary 
troops came to the front, the Royalists were over- 
thrown and driven off in wild rout. Cavendish 
himself brought up his reserve and routed a 
portion of the Parliamentary forces ; but Crom- 

81 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

well had neither lost his head nor let his force 
get out of hand. He, too, had a reserve, and 
with this he charged Cavendish and overthrew 
him, Cavendish himself being slain. 

This feat was succeeded by another quite as 
notable. After relieving the town and giving 
Lord Willoughby powder and provisions, Crom- 
well advanced toward some Royalist soldiers who 
still remained in view, about a mile distant. To 
his astonishment, these proved to be the vanguard 
of Newcastle's whole army, and there was nothing 
for it but to retreat. Cromwell's troops were 
tired, and only his excellent generalship and in- 
domitable courage prevented a disastrous rout. 
Both the Parliamentary horse and foot were at 
first shaken by the advance of the fresh Roy- 
alist soldiery, but Cromwell speedily got them 
in hand and retired by divisions, making head 
against the enemy alternately with one body of 
horse and then with another, while the rest of 
the troops drew back behind the shield thus 
afforded them. The alternating squadrons of 
the rear-guard always made head against the 
enemy and checked him, but always slipped 
away before he could charge, and thus the tired 
army was brought off in safety. 

In September Cromwell joined Sir Thomas 
Fairfax; and in October they met and over- 

82 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

threw a Royalist force at Winceby, the Puritan 
troopers singing a psalm as they advanced to the 
combat. The numbers seem to have been about 
equal, perhaps 3,000 a side. The battle began 
with a skirmish between the dragoons of the two 
forces. It was decided by the tremendous charge 
of Cromwell's steel-clad troopers. The charge 
was made at the trot, Cromwell leading his men. 
The Royal dragoons fired upon them as they 
came on, Cromwell's horse was killed, and a 
Cavalier knocked him down as he rose, but was 
himself killed by a Puritan trooper. Cromwell 
sprang to his feet, flung himself on a fresh horse, 
and again joined in the fight. His troops were 
heavy cavalry, cuirassiers, and the opposing Roy- 
alists, with only buff coats, were overthrown by 
the shock of his advance. Fairfax charged in 
flank, and the rout was complete. The Royalist 
leaders chronicled with astonishment the fact that 
the Parliamentary horse showed great superiority 
— that they were " very good and extraordinarily 
armed." Apparently the victory was owing to the 
excellent drilling of Cromwell's troops, which 
enabled them to charge knee to knee ; and when 
thus charging, the weight of the horses and of the 
ironclad men made them irresistible. 

In 1644 the war at first dragged on as a series 
of isolated expeditions and fights in which neither 

83 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

side was able to score any decided advantage. 
Rupert performed two or three brilliant feats; the 
Scotch crossed the border to aid the Parliamen- 
tarians; and Charles tried to come to some un- 
derstanding with the Irish, by which they would, 
if possible, furnish him troops, and if not, would 
at least free the English troops in Ireland. Some 
of the latter he did bring over. After one or 
two successes a body of them were captured and 
many subscribed to the Covenant. The most 
noted man who thus changed sides was the after- 
time General, George Monk. 

Cromwell was looming up steadily; not only 
for the discipline of his men, but for the vigilant 
way in which he kept touch with the enemy and 
gained information about them, making the best 
possible use of pickets, outposts, and scouting 
parties; all, by the way, being, as was usual in 
those times, under the headship of an officer 
known as the Scout-master — a far better term 
than the cumbrous modern " Chief of the Bureau 
of Intelligence." Of course Cromwell's growing 
military reputation added greatly to his weight in 
Parliament, of which, like most of the leading 
generals, he was still a member. His first feat 
during this year showed how little the duties of 
the soldier and the statesman were as yet difFer« 
entiated. 

84 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

Early in January he appeared in the House of 
Commons, charged Lord Willoughby with mis- 
conduct, and brought about his removal and the 
naming of Manchester to the sole command in 
the seven associated counties. Manchester was 
little more than a figure-head. He made Crom- 
well his lieutenant-general and yielded in all 
things to him, until he was alienated by falling 
under the control of the Scotch Covenanters, who 
already hated Cromwell as a representative of the 
"sectaries" whom they persecuted. The House 
of Commons appointed a Committee of Both 
Kingdoms to assume the supreme executive au- 
thority for the conduct of the war. Cromwell 
was made a member of this Committee, and was 
also the ruling member of the Committee of the 
Eastern Association, which furnished the zealously 
Puritan force that was already the mainspring of 
the Parliamentary army. 

In June the Scotch, under the Earl of Leven, 
and the English, under Lord Fairfax and Lord 
Manchester, were besieging York, which was de- 
fended by Lord Newcastle. Toward the very 
last of the month Rupert marched rapidly to its 
relief. The three Parliamentary generals fell back 
instead of falling on him as he advanced. New- 
castle wished to leave them alone, but Rupert in- 
sisted upon following and attacking the Parlia- 

85 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

mentary armies. He and Newcastle had about 
20,000 men. The Parliamentarians probably- 
numbered some 25,000 ; but throughout this war 
it is impossible to give either the numbers or the 
losses with accuracy. 

On July 2d Rupert overtook the end of the Par- 
liamentary column, which was saved from disaster 
only by the fortunate fact that the horse of Crom- 
well and Sir Thomas Fairfax formed the rear- 
guard. The two latter sent on word of Rupert's 
advance, warning the Parliamentary generals that 
they could not now avoid a fight ; and promptly 
the Scotch and English troops were turned to face 
their Royalist foes on Marston Moor. 

A ditch stretched across the moor, and the ar- 
mies drew up with this extending for most of its 
length between them. Each side was marshalled 
in the usual order — infantry in the centre, cavalry 
on the flanks. The horse of the Parliamentary 
right wing was commanded by Sir Thomas Fair- 
fax, who had under him his own English cavalry 
and three Scottish regiments. The right wing of 
the foot was commanded by Lord Fairfax, and 
consisted of the Yorkshire troops and two bri- 
gades of Scots. The centre, with its reserve, con- 
sisted of Scotch troops ; the left, of the infantry of 
the Eastern Association. Leven was with the in- 
fantry of the centre; Manchester on his left. 

86 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

The horse of the left wing were under Cromwell, 
his Ironsides occupying the front line with three 
Scotch regiments in reserve. 

In the Royalist army the horse on the left wing 
were under Goring; the infantry in the centre 
were under Newcastle, and Rupert himself led 
the horse of the right wing. At last the two 
great cavalry leaders of the war — Rupert and 
Cromwell — were to meet face to face. The war 
had lasted nearly two years. The best troops, un- 
der the best leaders, had reached very nearly their 
limit of perfectibility ; they were veterans, soldiers 
in every sense. 

Hour after hour passed while the armies stood 
motionless, the leaders on either side anxiously 
scanning the enemy, seeking to find a weak point 
at which to strike. Evening drew on and no 
move was made. The Royalist leaders made up 
their mind that the battle would not be fought 
that day. Suddenly, at seven o'clock, the whole 
Parliamentary army moved forward, the Puritan 
troopers chanting a psalm, according to their 
wont. 

On the right, Fairfax's troopers, as they ad- 
vanced, were thrown into disorder. Goring 
charged them furiously, drove them back on the 
reserve of Scotch cavalry, and overthrew them all. 
The rout was hopeless, and the flying horsemen 

87 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

carried away the Yorkshire foot with them. Sir 
Thomas kept the ground, with a few of his troop- 
ers and a large number of Lord Balgony's Scotch 
Lancers and the Earl of Eglinton's Scotch Cui- 
rassiers. The fugitives were followed in hot pur- 
suit by Goring, but part of his horse were kept in 
hand by their commander, Sir Charles Lucas, 
who, wheeling to the right, charged the flank of 
the Scotch foot, who had formed the Parliament- 
ary centre, and who had now crossed the ditch 
and were attacking the Royalists in front. The 
Scotch fought with stubborn valor, repulsing Lu- 
cas again and again, but suffering so heavily them- 
selves that it became evident that they could not 
long stand the combined front and flank attack. 
While disaster had thus overtaken the Parlia- 
mentary right, on the left Cromwell had com- 
pletely the upper hand. His steel-clad troopers 
crashed into Rupert's horsemen at full speed. The 
fight was equal for some time, neither stubborn 
Roundhead nor gallant Cavalier being able to 
wrest the mastery from the other. But Rupert, 
who always depended upon one smashing blow, 
and put his main force into his front line, did not, 
like Cromwell, understand how best to use a re- 
serve. Cromwell's reserve — the Scotch cavalry — 
came up and charged home, and the Royalist 
horse were overthrown with the shock. "God 

88 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

made them as stubble to our swords,'' said Crom- 
well. 

Sending his leading troops in pursuit, to pre- 
vent the enemy from rallying, Cromwell instantly 
gathered the bulk of his horse and fell on the 
right wing of the Royalist foot — already hard 
pressed by the foot of the Eastern Association. 
The King's men fought with dogged courage, 
most conspicuous among them being Newcastle's 
own Northumbrian Regiment, the famous White- 
coats, who literally died as they stood in the ranks. 

Sweeping down the line the Ironsides smashed 
one regiment after another, until, in the fading 
summer evening, Cromwell had almost circled 
the Royalist army, and came to their left wing, 
where he saw the Royalist horse charging the right 
flank of the Scots and harrying the routed York- 
shire foot. Immediately he reformed his thor- 
oughly trained squadrons almost on the same 
ground where Goring's horse stood at the begin- 
ning of the battle, and fronting the same way. 
The foot of the Association formed beside them, 
and just before nightfall the Puritan cavalry and 
infantry made their final charge. Goring's troop- 
ers were returning from their pursuit; Lucas's 
men were recoiling from their last charge, in 
which Lucas himself had been captured. They 
were scattered like chaff by the shock of the steel- 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

clad Cromwellian troopers, riding boot to boot; 
and the remaining Royalist foot shared the same 
fate. The battle was over just as night fell, stop- 
ping all pursuit. But there was little need of 
pursuit. As at Waterloo, the very obstinacy 
with which the fight had been waged made the 
overthrow all the more complete when at last it 
came. Night went down on a scene of wild con- 
fusion, with thousands of fugitives from both armies 
streaming off the field through the darkness ; for 
the disaster to the right wing of the Parliament- 
ary army had resulted not only in the rout of all 
the Yorkshire men and half of the Scotch, but 
also in the three Parliamentary commanding gen- 
erals, Leven, Manchester, and Lord Fairfax, be- 
ing swept off in the mass of fugitives. The 
fight had been won by Cromwell, not only by 
the valor, coolness, keen insight, and power of 
control over his men, which he had showed in the 
battle itself, but by the two years of careful prep- 
aration and drill which had tempered the splendid 
weapons he used so well. 

This was the first great victory of the war; but 
it produced no decisive effect; for there was no 
one general to take advantage of it. York 
fell; but little else resulted from the triumph. 
Fairfax, Manchester, and Leven all separated to 
pursue various unimportant objects. They left 

90 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

Rupert time to recruit his shattered forces. They 
did not march south to help Essex, who was op- 
posed to the King in person. Essex blundered 
badly, and when he marched into Cornwall was 
out-manceuvred and surrounded, and finally had 
to surrender all his infantry. Before this the King 
had already beaten the Parliamentary general, 
Waller, at Copredy Bridge, the defeat of the Par- 
liamentarians being turned into disaster by the con- 
duct of the London trained-bands, who, after two 
years of battle, were still mere militia, insubordi- 
nate and prone to desert. It was not with such stuff 
that victory over the Royalists could be obtained. 
Mere militia who will not submit to rigid disci- 
pline cannot be made the equals of regulars by 
no matter how many years of desultory fighting. 
In the War of the American Revolution it was 
the Continentals — the regulars of Washington, 
Wayne, and Greene — who finally won the vic- 
tory, while even to the very end of the struggle 
the ordinary militia proved utterly unable to face 
the red-coats. So in the English Civil War, it 
was the carefully drilled and trained horse and 
foot of the Eastern Association, and not the dis- 
orderly London trained-bands, who overthrew the 
King's men. Cromwell had developed his troops 
just as Grant and Lee, Sherman and Johnston 
long afterward developed theirs. It is only under 

91 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

exceptional conditions, and with wholly excep- 
tional populations, that it is possible to forego 
such careful drilling and training. 

One great reason for the failures of the Par- 
liamentary forces was that their leading generals 
no longer greatly cared for success. They were 
Presbyterians, who believed in the Parliament, 
but who also believed in the throne. They hated 
the Independents quite as much as they hated 
the Episcopalians, and felt a growing distrust of 
Cromwell, who in religious matters was the leader 
of the Independents, and who had announced that 
if he met the King in battle he would kill him 
as quickly as he would kill anyone else. Essex 
was no more capable of putting a finish to the 
war than McClellan was capable of overthrowing 
the Confederacy. The one, like the other, had 
to make room for sterner and more resolute men. 

The Committee of both Kingdoms struggled 
in vain to get their generals to accomplish some- 
thing. At Newbury — where one indecisive bat- 
tle had already been fought — they got together 
an army nearly double the strength of the King's : 
with no result save that another indecisive battle 
was fought, on October 29, 1644. It was evident 
that there had to be a complete change in the 
management of the war if a victory was to be 
achieved. Accordingly Cromwell once more 

92 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

turned from the field to the House of Com- 
mons. 

In November he rose in Parliament and de- 
nounced Manchester as utterly inefficient; and 
then turned his onslaught from an attack on one 
man into a general move against all the hitherto 
leaders of the army. On December 9th he ad- 
dressed the House in one of his characteristic 
speeches, rugged in form, but instinct with the 
man's eager, strong personality, fiery earnestness 
and hard common-sense. He pointed out, not 
all the truth — for that was not politic — but the 
evident truth that it was not wise to have leaders 
who both served in Parliament and also com- 
manded in the army. The result was the passage 
of the Self-denying Ordinance, by which all 
members of either of the Houses were required 
to resign their commands; so that, at a stroke, 
the Presbyterian and Parliamentary leaders were 
removed from their control of the forces. Two 
months afterward it was decreed that the forces of 
the Commonwealth should be reorganized on the 
" New Model." For the short-time service and 
militia levy system there was substituted the New 
Model ; that is, the plan under which in the Eastern 
Association the Ironsides had been raised to such 
a pitch of efficiency was extended to include the 
whole army. Sir Thomas Fairfax was put in 

93 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

command, but so evident was it to everyone that 
Cromwell was the real master-mind of the Parlia- 
mentary armies that the Self-denying Ordinance 
was not enforced as far as he was concerned, and 
he was retained, nominally as second, but in re- 
ality as chief, in command. This was not only a 
victory for the radical military party, but a vic- 
tory for the Independents over the Presbyterians. 
The Independent strength was in the army, and 
they now had their own leaders. 

During the period of reorganization of the 
army the war lagged along in its usual fashion, 
with Rupert as much to the fore as ever; and to 
the Royalists it merely seemed that their adver- 
saries had gotten at odds, and that the great 
noblemen, the experienced leaders, had been 
driven from their leadership. Their hopes were 
high, especially as in Scotland affairs had taken 
a sudden and most unexpected turn in their favor. 
Immediately after Marston Moor Montrose had 
begun his wonderful year of crowded life. Rec- 
ognizing the extraordinary military qualities of 
the Celtic clansmen of the Highlands, he had 
stirred them to revolt, and had proved himself a 
master of war by a succession of startling vic- 
tories which finally put almost all Scotland at his 
feet. One would have to examine the campaigns 
of Forrest to find any parallel for what he did. 

94 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

Because of his feats he has been compared to 
Cromwell, but his fights were on so much smaller 
a scale that the comparison is no more possible 
than it would be possible to compare Forrest with 
Grant or Lee. 

It is a noteworthy fact that the two soldier 
types which emerged from the English Civil 
War as victorious over all others were the Crom- 
wellian Ironside and the Scotch Highlander. 
The intense religious and patriotic fervor and 
hard common-sense of the one was in the other 
supplanted by a mere wild love of fighting for 
fighting's sake. It may be questioned which was 
most formidable in battle, but in a campaign 
there was no comparison whatsoever between 
them ; and once his other foes were vanquished, 
the Cromwellian soldier had not the slightest dif- 
ficulty in holding down the Highlander. 

The victories of Montrose, the feats of Rupert, 
and the failures of the Parliamentarians since 
Marston Moor gave Charles every feeling of con- 
fidence, when, on June 14, 1645, he led his 
army against the New Model at Naseby. As 
usual in these battles, it is not possible to state the 
exact numbers, but it would appear that, as at 
Marston Moor, the Royalists troops were outnum- 
bered, being about 10,000 as against 14,000 in 
the Parliamentary army. Fairfax commanded 

95 




OLIVER CROMWELL 

for the Parliament, and the King was present in 
person. As usual, the infantry on each side was 
in the centre. On the right wing of the Parlia- 
mentarians Cromwell led his horse, while Ireton 
had the horse of the left. Rupert commanded 
the cavalry on the right wing of the Royalists, 
and Sir Marmaduke Langdale that of the left. 
Thus Rupert was not, as at Marston Moor, pitted 
against Cromwell ; and anyone except Cromwell 
he could beat. Ireton was a stout soldier, but he 
and his cavalry were completely overthrown; 
then, according to their usual custom, Rupert's 
Cavaliers followed the headlong flight of their 
opponents in an equally headlong pursuit. 
Meanwhile, in the centre, the foot crashed to- 
gether and fought with savage obstinacy on equal 
terms. As at Marston Moor, the fight was de- 
cided solely by Cromwell. He overthrew the 
Royalist horse as he always overthrew them, and 
he kept his men in hand as he always kept them. 
Leaving a sufficient force to watch the broken 
hostile squadrons, he wheeled the remainder and 
fell on the Royalist infantry in flank and rear. 
For a moment, King Charles, stirred by a noble 
impulse, led forward his horse guards to do or 
die ; but the Earl of Carnworth seized his bridle 
and stopped him, saying : " Will you go upon 
your death ? " Had the King been indeed a 

96 






THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

king, as ready to stake his own life for his king- 
dom as he was to stake the lives of others, it 
would have gone hard with the man who sought 
to halt him, for in such a case no man is stopped 
by another unless he himself is more than willing ; 
but Charles faltered, the moment passed, and his 
army was overthrown in wild ruin. Rupert came 
back and reformed his men, but when Cromwell 
charged home with horse and foot the Royalist 
troopers never waited the onslaught. There was 
plenty of light for pursuit now, and Cromwell 
showed yet another trait of the great commanders 
by the unsparing energy with which he followed 
his foe to complete the wreck. For twelve miles 
the Parliamentary horse kept touch with the fly- 
ing foe. The King's army was hopelessly shat- 
tered ; from half to two-thirds of their number 
were slain or captured. The Parliamentary losses 
were also heavy ; a thousand of their men were 
killed or wounded. Ireton had been wounded, 
and Skippon, the Parliamentary major-general of 
foot. Fairfax, who had behaved with his usual 
gallantry, had had his helmet knocked off in the 
hand-to-hand fighting. The victory was Crom- 
well's. 

So decisive was the overthrow that it prac- 
tically ended the war. For a moment the King 
had hopes of what Montrose would do; but 

97 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

carried away the Yorkshire foot with them. Sir 
Thomas kept the ground, with a few of his troop- 
ers and a large number of Lord Balgony's Scotch 
Lancers and the Earl of Eglinton's Scotch Cui- 
rassiers. The fugitives were followed in hot pur- 
suit by Goring, but part of his horse were kept in 
hand by their commander, Sir Charles Lucas, 
who, wheeling to the right, charged the flank of 
the Scotch foot, who had formed the Parliament- 
ary centre, and who had now crossed the ditch 
and were attacking the Royalists in front. The 
Scotch fought with stubborn valor, repulsing Lu- 
cas again and again, but suffering so heavily them- 
selves that it became evident that they could not 
long stand the combined front and flank attack. 
While disaster had thus overtaken the Parlia- 
mentary right, on the left Cromwell had com- 
pletely the upper hand. His steel-clad troopers 
crashed into Rupert's horsemen at full speed. The 
fight was equal for some time, neither stubborn 
Roundhead nor gallant Cavalier being able to 
wrest the mastery from the other. But Rupert, 
who always depended upon one smashing blow, 
and put his main force into his front line, did not, 
like Cromwell, understand how best to use a re- 
serve. Cromwell's reserve — the Scotch cavalry — 
came up and charged home, and the Royalist 
horse were overthrown with the shock. "God 

88 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

made them as stubble to our swords," said Crom- 
well. 

Sending his leading troops in pursuit, to pre- 
vent the enemy from rallying, Cromwell instantly 
gathered the bulk of his horse and fell on the 
right wing of the Royalist foot — already hard 
pressed by the foot of the Eastern Association. 
The King's men fought with dogged courage, 
most conspicuous among them being Newcastle's 
own Northumbrian Regiment, the famous White- 
coats, who literally died as they stood in the ranks. 

Sweeping down the line the Ironsides smashed 
one regiment after another, until, in the fading 
summer evening, Cromwell had almost circled 
the Royalist army, and came to their left wing, 
where he saw the Royalist horse charging the right 
flank of the Scots and harrying the routed York- 
shire foot. Immediately he reformed his thor- 
oughly trained squadrons almost on the same 
ground where Goring's horse stood at the begin- 
ning of the battle, and fronting the same way. 
The foot of the Association formed beside them, 
and just before nightfall the Puritan cavalry and 
infantry made their final charge. Goring's troop- 
ers were returning from their pursuit; Lucas's 
men were recoiling from their last charge, in 
which Lucas himself had been captured. They 
were scattered like chaff by the shock of the steel- 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

clad Cromwellian troopers, riding boot to boot; 
and the remaining Royalist foot shared the same 
fate. The battle was over just as night fell, stop- 
ping all pursuit. But there was little need of 
pursuit. As at Waterloo, the very obstinacy 
with which the fight had been waged made the 
overthrow all the more complete when at last it 
came. Night went down on a scene of wild con- 
fusion, with thousands of fugitives from both armies 
streaming off the field through the darkness ; for 
the disaster to the right wing of the Parliament- 
ary army had resulted not only in the rout of all 
the Yorkshire men and half of the Scotch, but 
also in the three Parliamentary commanding gen- 
erals, Leven, Manchester, and Lord Fairfax, be- 
ing swept off in the mass of fugitives. The 
fight had been won by Cromwell, not only by 
the valor, coolness, keen insight, and power of 
control over his men, which he had showed in the 
battle itself, but by the two years of careful prep- 
aration and drill which had tempered the splendid 
weapons he used so well. 

This was the first great victory of the war; but 
it produced no decisive effect; for there was no 
one general to take advantage of it. York 
fell; but little else resulted from the triumph. 
Fairfax, Manchester, and Leven all separated to 
pursue various unimportant objects. They left 

90 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

Rupert time to recruit his shattered forces. They 
did not march south to help Essex, who was op- 
posed to the King in person. Essex blundered 
badly, and when he marched into Cornwall was 
out-manceuvred and surrounded, and finally had 
to surrender all his infantry. Before this the King 
had already beaten the Parliamentary general, 
Waller, at Copredy Bridge, the defeat of the Par- 
liamentarians being turned into disaster by the con- 
duct of the London trained-bands, who, after two 
years of battle, were still mere militia, insubordi- 
nate and prone to desert. It was not with such stuff 
that victory over the Royalists could be obtained. 
Mere militia who will not submit to rigid disci- 
pline cannot be made the equals of regulars by 
no matter how many years of desultory fighting. 
In the War of the American Revolution it was 
the Continentals — the regulars of Washington, 
Wayne, and Greene — who finally won the vic- 
tory, while even to the very end of the struggle 
the ordinary militia proved utterly unable to face 
the red-coats. So in the English Civil War, it 
was the carefully drilled and trained horse and 
foot of the Eastern Association, and not the dis- 
orderly London trained-bands, who overthrew the 
King's men. Cromwell had developed his troops 
just as Grant and Lee, Sherman and Johnston 
long afterward developed theirs. It is only under 

91 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

exceptional conditions, and with wholly excep- 
tional populations, that it is possible to forego 
such careful drilling and training. 

One great reason for the failures of the Par- 
liamentary forces was that their leading generals 
no longer greatly cared for success. They were 
Presbyterians, who believed in the Parliament, 
but who also believed in the throne. They hated 
the Independents quite as much as they hated 
the Episcopalians, and felt a growing distrust of 
Cromwell, who in religious matters was the leader 
of the Independents, and who had announced that 
if he met the King in battle he would kill him 
as quickly as he would kill anyone else. Essex 
was no more capable of putting a finish to the 
war than McClellan was capable of overthrowing 
the Confederacy. The one, like the other, had 
to make room for sterner and more resolute men. 

The Committee of both Kingdoms struggled 
in vain to get their generals to accomplish some- 
thing. At Newbury — where one indecisive bat- 
tle had already been fought — they got together 
an army nearly double the strength of the King's : 
with no result save that another indecisive battle 
was fought, on October 29, 1644. It was evident 
that there had to be a complete change in the 
management of the war if a victory was to be 
achieved. Accordingly Cromwell once more 

92 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

turned from the field to the House of Com- 
mons. 

In November he rose in Parliament and de- 
nounced Manchester as utterly inefficient; and 
then turned his onslaught from an attack on one 
man into a general move against all the hitherto 
leaders of the army. On December 9th he ad- 
dressed the House in one of his characteristic 
speeches, rugged in form, but instinct with the 
man's eager, strong personality, fiery earnestness 
and hard common-sense. He pointed out, not 
all the truth — for that was not politic — but the 
evident truth that it was not wise to have leaders 
who both served in Parliament and also com- 
manded in the army. The result was the passage 
of the Self-denying Ordinance, by which all 
members of either of the Houses were required 
to resign their commands; so that, at a stroke, 
the Presbyterian and Parliamentary leaders were 
removed from their control of the forces. Two 
months afterward it was decreed that the forces of 
the Commonwealth should be reorganized on the 
"New Model." For the short-time service and 
militia levy system there was substituted the New 
Model ; that is, the plan under which in the Eastern 
Association the Ironsides had been raised to such 
a pitch of efficiency was extended to include the 
whole army. Sir Thomas Fairfax was put in 

93 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

command, but so evident was it to everyone that 
Cromwell was the real master-mind of the Parlia- 
mentary armies that the Self-denying Ordinance 
was not enforced as far as he was concerned, and 
he was retained, nominally as second, but in re- 
ality as chief, in command. This was not only a 
victory for the radical military party, but a vic- 
tory for the Independents over the Presbyterians. 
The Independent strength was in the army, and 
they now had their own leaders. 

During the period of reorganization of the 
army the war lagged along in its usual fashion, 
with Rupert as much to the fore as ever; and to 
the Royalists it merely seemed that their adver- 
saries had gotten at odds, and that the great 
noblemen, the experienced leaders, had been 
driven from their leadership. Their hopes were 
high, especially as in Scotland affairs had taken 
a sudden and most unexpected turn in their favor. 
Immediately after Marston Moor Montrose had 
begun his wonderful year of crowded life. Rec- 
ognizing the extraordinary military qualities of 
the Celtic clansmen of the Highlands, he had 
stirred them to revolt, and had proved himself a 
master of war by a succession of startling vic- 
tories which finally put almost all Scotland at his 
feet. One would have to examine the campaigns 
of Forrest to find any parallel for what he did. 

94 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

Because of his feats he has been compared to 
Cromwell, but his fights were on so much smaller 
a scale that the comparison is no more possible 
than it would be possible to compare Forrest with 
Grant or Lee. 

It is a noteworthy fact that the two soldier 
types which emerged from the English Civil 
War as victorious over all others were the Crom- 
wellian Ironside and the Scotch Highlander. 
The intense religious and patriotic fervor and 
hard common-sense of the one was in the other 
supplanted by a mere wild love of fighting for 
fighting's sake. It may be questioned which was 
most formidable in battle, but in a campaign 
there was no comparison whatsoever between 
them ; and once his other foes were vanquished, 
the Cromwellian soldier had not the slightest dif- 
ficulty in holding down the Highlander. 

The victories of Montrose, the feats of Rupert, 
and the failures of the Parliamentarians since 
Marston Moor gave Charles every feeling of con- 
fidence, when, on June 14, 1645, he led his 
army against the New Model at Naseby. As 
usual in these battles, it is not possible to state the 
exact numbers, but it would appear that, as at 
Marston Moor, the Royalists troops were outnum- 
bered, being about 10,000 as against 14,000 in 
the Parliamentary army. Fairfax commanded 

95 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

for the Parliament, and the King was present in 
person. As usual, the infantry on each side was 
in the centre. On the right wing of the Parlia- 
mentarians Cromwell led his horse, while Ireton 
had the horse of the left. Rupert commanded 
the cavalry on the right wing of the Royalists, 
and Sir Marmaduke Langdale that of the left. 
Thus Rupert was not, as at Marston Moor, pitted 
against Cromwell ; and anyone except Cromwell 
he could beat. Ireton was a stout soldier, but he 
and his cavalry were completely overthrown; 
then, according to their usual custom, Rupert's 
Cavaliers followed the headlong flight of their 
opponents in an equally headlong pursuit. 
Meanwhile, in the centre, the foot crashed to- 
gether and fought with savage obstinacy on equal 
terms. As at Marston Moor, the fight was de- 
cided solely by Cromwell. He overthrew the 
Royalist horse as he always overthrew them, and 
he kept his men in hand as he always kept them. 
Leaving a sufficient force to watch the broken 
hostile squadrons, he wheeled the remainder and 
fell on the Royalist infantry in flank and rear. 
For a moment, King Charles, stirred by a noble 
impulse, led forward his horse guards to do or 
die ; but the Earl of Carnworth seized his bridle 
and stopped him, saying : " Will you go upon 
your death *? " Had the King been indeed a 

9 6 




u 



u 



, 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT 

king, as ready to stake his own life for his king- 
dom as he was to stake the lives of others, it 
would have gone hard with the man who sought 
to halt him, for in such a case no man is stopped 
by another unless he himself is more than willing ; 
but Charles faltered, the moment passed, and his 
army was overthrown in wild ruin. Rupert came 
back and reformed his men, but when Cromwell 
charged home with horse and foot the Royalist 
troopers never waited the onslaught. There was 
plenty of light for pursuit now, and Cromwell 
showed yet another trait of the great commanders 
by the unsparing energy with which he followed 
his foe to complete the wreck. For twelve miles 
the Parliamentary horse kept touch with the fly- 
ing foe. The King's army was hopelessly shat- 
tered ; from half to two-thirds of their number 
were slain or captured. The Parliamentary losses 
were also heavy ; a thousand of their men were 
killed or wounded. Ireton had been wounded, 
and Skippon, the Parliamentary major-general of 
foot. Fairfax, who had behaved with his usual 
gallantry, had had his helmet knocked off in the 
hand-to-hand fighting. The victory was Crom- 
well's. 

So decisive was the overthrow that it prac- 
tically ended the war. For a moment the King 
had hopes of what Montrose would do; but 

97 



OLIVER CROMWELL 






when Montrose came out of the Highlands he 
found that the clansmen would not march beside 
him for a long campaign ; at Philiphaugh he was 
overwhelmed by numbers, and the Royalist party 
in Scotland disappeared with his overthrow. 
Fairfax whipped Goring and captured Bristol. 
Cromwell took Winchester, where he dealt 
severely with certain of his troopers who had 
been plundering. He then stormed Basing 
House, an immense fortified pile, the property 
of the Catholic Marquis of Winchester. Again 
and again the Parliamentary generals had at- 
tempted to take the place, bat had always been 
beaten. Cromwell would not be denied; after 
three days' battering with his guns, and an 
evening spent in prayer and in reading the 
115th Psalm, he stormed it with a rush, and 
the splendid castle, its rooms and galleries filled 
with all the treasures of art, was left a blackened 
and blood-stained ruin. After this it was in vain 
that the Royalist troops strove to make head 
against their foes. If they stood in the open 
they were beaten; castle after castle, and fortified 
manor-house after manor-house, were battered 
down or stormed by Cromwell and his comrades ; 
and in the spring of 1646 the King surrendered 
himself to the Scotch army. 



98 



Ill 

THE SECOND CIVIL WAR AND THE DEATH OF 
THE KING 

WHEN the stout old Royalist, Sir Jacob 
Astley, was overcome and surrendered, 
he exclaimed, as he gave up his sword : " Now 
you have done your work and may go play, un- 
less you fall out among yourselves ! " It very 
soon became evident that the victors would fall 
out among themselves. Any revolutionary move- 
ment must be carried through by parties whose 
aims are so different, or whose feelings and inter- 
ests are so divergent, that there is great difficulty 
in the victors coming to a working agreement to 
conserve the fruits of their victory. Not only the 
leaders, but more especially their followers — that 
is, the mass of the people — must possess great 
moderation and good sense for this to be possible. 
Otherwise, after much warfare of factions, some 
strong man, a Cromwell or a Napoleon, is forced 
or forces himself to the front and saves the fac- 
tions from destroying one another by laying his 
iron hand on all. 

IrfC. 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

In the middle of the seventeenth century the 
English people, accustomed for many generations 
to look to the monarch as their real ruler, began 
to tumble into chaos when they wrenched them- 
selves free from the ingrained hereditary habit 
which had made loyalty to the King and orderly 
government convertible terms. They were not 
yet fit to govern themselves unaided; such fitness 
is not a God-given, natural right, but comes to a 
race only through the slow growth of centuries, 
and then only to those races which possess an im- 
mense reserve fund of strength, common-sense, 
and morality. The English of the middle of the 
seventeenth century were very much farther ad- 
vanced along the road than were the French at the 
end of the eighteenth. They had no such dread- 
ful wrongs to avenge as had the French people, 
and they indulged in no such bloodthirsty antics 
among themselves. But they had by no means 
attained to that power of compromise which they 
showed forty years later in the Revolution of 
1688, or which was displayed by their blood-kin 
and political heirs, the American victors in the 
struggles of 1776 and 1861. In the English 
Revolution that placed William on the throne, in 
the American Revolution, and in the American 
Civil War, the victors passed through periods of 
great danger when it seemed possible that the 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 

fruits of their victory might be thrown away. 
They did not suffer the fate of the victors of 
1648, chiefly because of the growth of the spirit 
of tolerance, of the capacity for compromise, 
which enabled them in part to ignore their own 
differences, and in part to abide by a peaceful 
settlement of them. 

In England, by 1688, the Cromwellian move- 
ment had itself educated even those who most 
sincerely believed that they abhorred it; and 
there was a far less servile spirit toward James II. 
than toward Charles I. There was less fanatical 
intolerance of one another among the elements 
that had combined to put William on the throne ; 
and William, otherwise by no means as great a 
man as Cromwell, was yet far more willing to ac- 
cept working compromises, and more content to 
let Parliament go its own way, even when that 
way was not the wisest. After the American 
Revolution Washington's greatness of character, 
sound common-sense, and entirely disinterested 
patriotism, made him a bulwark both against 
anarchy and against despotism coming in the 
name of a safeguard against anarchy; and the 
people were fit for self-government, adding to 
their fierce jealousy of tyranny a reluctant and by 
no means whole-hearted, but genuine, admission 
that it could be averted only by coming to an 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

agreement among themselves. Washington would 
not let his officers try to make him Dictator, nor 
allow the Continental Army to march against the 
weak Congress which distrusted it, was ungrateful 
to it, and refused to provide for it. Unlike 
Cromwell, he saw that the safety of the people 
lay in working out their own salvation, even 
though they showed much wrong-headedness and 
blindness, not merely to morality, but to their 
own interests; and, in the long run, the people 
justified this trust. 

But Cromwell never wanted the people to de- 
cide for themselves, unless they decided in the 
way that he thought right; and, on the other 
hand, the difficulty with the people was even 
greater; for they had neither the desire for free- 
dom, the moderation in using freedom, nor the 
toleration of differences of opinion, which the 
American colonists had developed by the end of 
the following century. At the close of, and after, 
the American Civil War the differences of opin- 
ion and belief among the victors were such as 
would inevitably have produced further fighting 
in Cromwell's time. The Northern Democrats 
were anxious to combine politically with the de- 
feated Southerners, and to reinstate, as nearly as 
might be, the old ante-bellum conditions — that is, 
to prepare for another Civil War. The Repub- 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 

lican Party itself showed signs of a deep division 
between the Extremists and Moderates, while 
there were all sorts of violent little factions, just 
as there were Anabaptists and Fifth Monarchy- 
men in Cromwell's time. The Garrison or dis- 
union Abolitionists, for instance, had formed just 
such a faction, and had seen their cause triumph, 
not through, but in spite of, their own efforts. If 
the Abolitionists of the Wendell Phillips type, in- 
stead of seeking to compass Lincoln's defeat for 
the Presidency in 1864 by peaceful means, had 
threatened armed agitation; if, instead of trying 
to elect McClellan or Seymour at the polls, the 
Northern Democrats had taken the field with the 
former at their head ; if the Republicans had first 
crushed them by force of arms, and then had 
fought among themselves until the extreme radi- 
cal element got the upper hand, installed Grant 
as perpetual President and dissolved Congress 
when it became evident that the Democrats and 
moderate Republicans combined would outnumber 
the radicals — we should have had a very fair anal- 
ogy to what happened in the Cromwellian era. 

In such a case, moreover, be it remembered 
that the fault would have lain less with the per- 
petual President than with the people whose de- 
fects called him into being. Cromwell did not 
stand on the lofty plane of Washington; but, 

?Q3 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

morally, he was infinitely and beyond all com- 
parison above the class of utterly selfish and un- 
scrupulous usurpers, of whom Napoleon is the 
greatest representative. At the close of the first 
Civil War there is no reason to suppose that he 
had any ambition inconsistent with the highest 
good of his country, or any thought of making 
himself paramount. To all outward seeming, his 
efforts were conscientiously directed to securing 
the fruits of the victory for liberty, while at the 
same time securing stability in the government. 
Unfortunately, in coming to an agreement among 
men, no moderation or wisdom on the part of any 
one man will suffice. Something of these quali- 
ties must be possessed by all parties to the agree- 
ment. The incurable treachery of King Charles 
rendered it hopeless to work with him ; and the 
utter inability of Episcopalians, Presbyterians, 
Roman Catholics, and indeed of all parties and 
all creeds to act on the live-and-let-live principle, 
rendered a really free government almost unwork- 
able at the moment. How little Cromwell yet 
thought of striving for a kingly position is shown 
by his conduct in his social relations, notably by 
the marriages of his children, who at this time 
sought their mates in families of his own rank. 
The only one of these marriages with which we 
need concern ourselves is that of his daughter, 

104 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 

Bridget, to Ireton, a good soldier and able poli- 
tician, who was devoted to Cromwell, and was on 
very close and intimate terms with him. 

The religious element entered into everything 
Cromwell did, mixing curiously with his hard com- 
mon-sense and practical appreciation of worldly 
benefits. It appears in all his letters and speeches. 
Such a letter as he wrote to the Speaker of the 
House after the storming of Bristol, is in thought 
and manner more akin to the writings of some old 
Hebrew prophet than to those of any conqueror 
before or after Cromwell's time. It is saturated, 
not merely with biblical phraseology, but with 
biblical feeling, all the glory being ascribed to 
God, and the army claiming as their sole honor 
that God had vouchsafed to use them in his ser- 
vice, and that by faith and prayer they had ob- 
tained the favor of the Most High. It is im- 
possible for a fair-minded and earnest man to read 
Cromwell's letters and reports after action, and the 
prayers he made and the psalms he chose to read 
and to give out before action, and to doubt the 
intensity of the man's religious fervor. In our day 
such utterances would be hypocritical. Almost 
the only modern generals in whom they would 
have been the sincere expression of inward belief 
were Stonewall Jackson and Gordon; and the 
times had changed so utterly that even they could 

105 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

not possibly give utterance to them as Cromwell 
did. But in Cromwell's time the most earnest 
Puritans thought as he did, and expressed their 
thoughts as he did. That such expression should 
lend itself very readily to hypocrisy was inevitable ; 
indeed, it was perhaps inevitable that the habitual 
use of such expression should breed somewhat of 
hypocrisy in almost any user. The incessant em- 
ployment by Cromwell and his comrades of the 
word " saints," to distinguish themselves and those 
who thought like them, is particularly objection- 
able in its offensive self-consciousness. 

In this letter about the taking of Bristol Crom- 
well touches upon the religious differences which 
were the great causes of division among the vic- 
tors. He writes: 

" Presbyterians, Independents, all have here the 
same spirit of faith and prayer ; the same presence 
and answer ; they agree here ; have no names of 
difference; pity it is it should be otherwise any- 
where. . . . And for brethren in things of 
the mind we look for no compulsion but that of 
light and reason." 

Cromwell strove earnestly to bring about har- 
mony between the Independents of the New 
Model army and the Presbyterians, who were 
dominant in Parliament. Even in that day there 
were in private life men of high character and 

1 06 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 

great intellect who believed in true religious lib- 
erty, men who stood far ahead of Cromwell ; but 
Cromwell was equally far ahead of all the men 
who then had any real control in public life ; so 
far ahead, indeed, that he could not get any con- 
siderable body of public opinion abreast of him. 

The Ironsides, the cavalry of Cromwell, stood 
as the extreme representatives of the spirit which 
actuated the army. The great bulk of them were 
men of intense political and religious convictions. 
However, many even of the cavalry, and a large 
majority of the rank and file of the infantry, were 
of the ordinary military type, men of no particu- 
lar convictions, a considerable number, indeed, 
having been enlisted from among the captured 
armies and garrisons of the King himself. Under 
the ties of discipline and comradeship, such men 
were sure to follow with entire fidelity the master- 
ful spirits among the officers and in their own 
ranks ; and all these masterful spirits were devoted 
to Cromwell as the great leader who had given 
them victory. They were even more devoted to 
their conceptions of religious and political liberty, 
and were resolutely bent on striking down the 
King who embodied, in their minds, the principles 
of religious and political oppression. These men 
had broken entirely with the past, and were no 
longer overawed by the name of hereditary power. 

107 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

" What," they asked, " were the Lords of England 
but William the Conqueror's Colonels, or the 
Barons but his Majors, or the Knights but his 
Captains?" 

They believed they were indeed the Lord's 
chosen people, and that upon them, as conquer- 
ors, there devolved the duty of safeguarding the 
interests of religion and of the Commonwealth. 
They wished to strike down the Bishops as well 
as the King ; and though most of them were Con- 
gregationalists or Baptists, they had already begun 
to develop plenty of men whose Christianity was 
of the most heterodox form, or who boldly an- 
nounced that they had a right to profess any creed, 
Christian or otherwise, if they so desired. To- 
gether with their iron discipline as an army went 
wide liberty of thought and discussion on all out- 
side matters — religious and political alike — when 
they were not in the ranks. There were preachers 
who served with sombre fidelity as privates, but 
who were fanatical inciters of Republican enthu- 
siasm in every leisure hour, haranguing and ex- 
horting their fellow-soldiers about every political 
or religious wrong. 

Trouble was brewing between this army and 
Parliament. The Episcopalians — the Royalists — 
had left Parliament when the war broke out. The 
Presbyterians were in complete command. Lon- 

ioS 



iiiiiiii 



":'.' "'" * 



41 



llllllll 







King Charles I. 

From the replica at the Dresden Gallery, by Sir Peter Lely. 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 

don, which held the purse-strings of the Parlia- 
mentary cause, was strongly Presbyterian. Now, 
the Presbyterians, as the war went on, had grown 
more and more afraid of their allies, and, indeed, 
of too decisive a victory over the King. They 
were just as much bent upon an intolerant uni- 
formity in Church matters as was Laud, though 
they wished to substitute a different form of 
Church government, which should rest upon a 
broader and more popular basis. They wished to 
make Parliament supreme, but they had no idea 
of dispensing with the King, and they were ex- 
ceedingly distrustful of a popular movement 
which would extend liberty beyond and beneath 
the classes from which they drew their strength. 
On the contrary, the army, which represented the 
Independent movement, was strongly democratic 
in its tendencies, and was filled with sullen wrath 
against the King. 

Cromwell himself was no theorist ; in fact, he 
was altogether too little of one. He wished to do 
away with concrete acts of oppression and in- 
justice; he sought to make life easier for any who 
suffered tangible wrong. Though earnestly bent 
upon doing justice as he saw it, and desirous to 
secure the essentials of liberty for the people as a 
whole, he failed to see that questions of form — 
that is, of law — in securing liberty might be them- 

109 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

selves essential instead of, as they seemed to him, 
non-essential. He was reluctant to enter into 
general schemes of betterment, especially if they 
seemed in any way visionary. But when his feel- 
ings were greatly roused over specific cases of 
wrong-doing or oppression, he sometimes became 
so wrought up as to advocate reform in language 
so sweeping that he seemed to commit himself, 
not only to absolute religious toleration, but to 
complete political equality. Thus when he broke 
with Lord Manchester he told him that he hoped 
" to live to see never a nobleman in England." 
In open Parliament he denounced " monarchical 
government." He advocated entire religious 
freedom. In dealing with the army he declared 
his readiness to maintain the doctrine that " the 
foundation and the supremacy is in the people — 
radically in them — and to be set down by them 
in their representations" — that is, by their repre- 
sentatives in Parliament. 

Of course, to make his conduct square with 
these various utterances, Cromwell would have 
had to strive for precisely such a government as 
Washington was able to inaugurate a century 
and a half later; a government in which there 
should be complete religious toleration, in which 
all differences of rank and title should be abol- 
ished, and in which the basis of representation in 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 

Parliament would have to approach more or less 
closely to manhood suffrage. Doubtless, there 
were times when Cromwell ardently wished for 
such a Government; but it was wholly out of 
the question to realize it in the middle of the 
seventeenth century, even in England. Genera- 
tions had to pass before men could grasp the true 
principles of religious toleration and political 
equality in all their bearings; and, like every 
other man who actually works out great reforms, 
who actually does signal service in the world, 
Cromwell had to face facts as they were, and not 
as bodies of extremists — no matter how good — 
thought they ought to be. 

The best and most high-minded of the Puritan 
party were now growing to fear lest the Presby- 
terians should try to perpetuate the old religious 
oppression under a new name. Milton — with 
but one exception the greatest poet of the 
English tongue, a man whose political and social 
ideas were at least two centuries in advance of 
his time, but who had the good sense to accept, 
no matter with what heart-burning, the best pos- 
sible when he could not get the best — Milton ex- 
pressed the convictions o^kis whole party when 
he said that if " Presbyte^ was but Priest writ 
large" the people were no bette^off than before. 

The army began to show openly its spirit of 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

fierce unrest. A very considerable portion avowed 
extreme republican theories. The Levellers, as 
they were called, were looked upon in that day, 
even by advocates of freedom like Cromwell, 
with great distrust, although the principles they 
advocated — such as manhood suffrage — are now 
the commonplaces of American politics. Of 
course, then they were not commonplaces ; they 
were revolutionary ideas, for the reception of 
which the mind of the English people was not 
ready, and therefore it was the duty of men who 
sought practical reform to refuse to put these 
schemes into operation. 

There were much more extreme and dangerous 
groups than the mere Republicans; groups of 
men in whom the desire for religious, political, 
and moral reform had overstepped the broad, but 
not always clearly marked, border line which 
divides sane and healthy fervor from fanaticism. 
In such troublous times small sects and parties of 
extremists swarm. Already the foundations were 
laid for the Fifth Monarchy men, the men who 
believed that the times were ripe for the installa- 
tion of the last great world monarchy, the mon- 
archy of which the ^Liviour himself was to be 
Ruler; the men whWshouted for King Jesus, 
and were ferociously opposed to everybody who 
would not advocate the immediate introduction 

112 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 

into all mundane affairs of Heaven's law, as the 
Fifth Monarchy men chose to interpret it. Of 
course, men of this type are always to be found 
in every free government, and aside from their 
peculiar notions, they may have excellent traits. 
In peaceful times and places like the United 
States at the present day, they merely join little 
extreme parties, and run small, separate tickets 
on election-day, thereby giving aid, comfort, and 
amusement to the totally unregenerate. In times 
of great political convulsion, when the appeal to 
arms has been made, these harmless bodies may 
draft into their ranks — as the Fifth Monarchy 
men did — fierce and dangerous spirits, ever ready 
to smite down with any weapons the possible 
good, because it is not the impossible best. 
When this occurs they need to be narrowly 
watched. 

There are many good people who find it diffi- 
cult to keep in mind the obvious fact that, while 
extremists are sometimes men who are in advance 
of their age, more often they are men who are not 
in advance at all, but simply to one side or the 
other of a great movement, or even lagging be- 
hind it, or trying to pilot it in the wrong di- 
rection. 

The seething unrest of the army found expres- 
sion in the creation of a regular political organi- 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

zation to oppose the organized Parliament. The 
officers formed a Council, and the rank and file 
chose delegates, two for each company or troop, 
known as " agitators." In short, the army became 
an organized political body whose scarcely ac- 
knowledged function was to control or supersede 
the Parliament; just as, prior to the outbreak of 
the American Revolution, Committees of Corre- 
spondence were formed, in the various colonies, 
out of which there sprang the Continental Con- 
gress, which superseded the loyalist colonial legis- 
latures. 

Cromwell, like every other great leader who 
rises in a period of storm and convulsion, could 
partly direct the forces around him, and in part 
had to be directed by them. He did not sym- 
pathize with the extreme position of the army 
about the King — the " man of blood," as the 
Puritan zealots called him, whose life they already 
demanded; nor yet with their radical political 
aspirations. But it was the army alone through 
which he could act, which gave him his strength ; 
and in return he was the one man who could in 
any way check or control it, for its loyalty to, and 
admiration of, the great leader at whose hands it 
had drained the cup of victory, were the only 
emotions strong enough to offset its fierce zeal 
for its own theories of Church and State. 

114 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 

Cromwell was most earnestly desirous of get- 
ting a working compromise between the King, 
the Presbyterian Parliament, and the Independent 
army ; a compromise which would allow the King 
to reign, exercising such executive powers as the 
Parliament felt he should possess, and which 
should leave the supreme control to Parliament, 
but with sufficient guarantees for political and 
religious freedom to insure justice to the Inde- 
pendents and the soldiers. He strove so hard to 
accomplish his purpose as to excite angry mutter- 
ings against himself among his own followers in 
the army; and the first steps of the impending 
revolution were seemingly taken by him only 
because he was irresistibly pushed onward by the 
army itself. When, however, he had once made 
up his mind that there was no other path possible, 
he trod it as a leader, with all his wonted firmness 
and decision. 

The effort for reconciliation was hopeless, 
chiefly because the King was an utterly impossi- 
ble person with whom to deal. He had many 
bitter foes; but they could not prevail against 
him until he convinced some of his would-be 
friends that he was absolutely and utterly untrust- 
worthy. He never for a moment entertained the 
idea of accepting his defeat, of abandoning the 
effort to rule as a despot, and of acting with good 

115 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

faith toward the people. His purpose was to 
play off the Presbyterians, together with the 
Scotch, against the Independents; as he wrote to 
a friend, he hoped to get either the one party or 
the other " to side with me for extirpating one 
another, and I shall be really King again." 

Meanwhile, the Presbyterian Parliament was 
determined not to tolerate the " sectaries " of the 
Congregationalist and Baptist Churches, and was 
drawing closer and closer to the Scotch Covenant- 
ers, who were even more intolerant; and finally 
it grew ready to accept the King himself on 
almost any terms, if it could overcome the army. 

But the army could not be overcome. It had 
perfected its political organization, and had begun 
to work through Ireton — Cromwell's other self. 
The army was genuinely reluctant to break with 
the Parliament, for, after all, it was deeply per- 
meated with the English respect for law and 
order ; and in the elections to fill the vacancies in 
the House, very many Independents — men like 
Ireton, Fairfax, and Blake, the after-time admiral 
— had been returned, so that there was in the 
Parliament a party which strongly sympathized 
with the army. 

The majority in Parliament, however, remained 
steadfast in its own views, and by its refusal to 
give the soldiers their arrears of pay it added a 

116 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 

very tangible, material grievance to those of an 
ethical character. In January, 1647, me Scottish 
army delivered King Charles to the agents of the 
Parliament, and quitted England, having received 
part of the sum of money due them. 

The most complicated and devious negotiations S 
followed between the King, the Parliament, and 
the army. Cromwell tried to get the army in 
touch with the Parliament, but found the Par- 
liament hopelessly obstinate. He tried to get it 
in touch with the King, but found the King 
hopelessly false. Yet, neither could the King 
and Parliament come together. Then the army 
threatened mutiny, whereupon the Parliament 
began to negotiate for bringing back the Scottish 
force to overawe the New Model, and attempted 
the disbandment of the latter. The army struck 
back with great decision and sent Cornet Joyce 
to seize the person of the King and take him 
away from the Presbyterians. Parliament at- 
tempted to proceed with the disbandment of the 
army, but was forced to abandon the effort when 
it became evident that to pursue it meant war. 
No one knew quite what the outcome would be, 
or, indeed, what his own course would be. 

Cromwell, like the rest, was drifting; he seri- 
ously thought of leaving England and going to 
Germany to fight for the Protestant cause, as the 

117 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

Thirty Years' War had not yet come quite to an 
end. To the French ambassador, who sounded 
him on the object of his ambition, he answered : 
"No one rises so high as he who knows not 
whither he is going." He was certainly at this 
time making the most honest efforts to come to 
an agreement, either with the King, or the Par- 
liament, or with both, provided only liberty of 
conscience should be granted, the power of Par- 
liament guaranteed against the despotism of the 
King, and the rights of the people guaranteed as 
against the despotism of Parliament. But, when 
Parliament began to negotiate with the Scots on 
its account, and Charles secretly sought to enter 
into a separate agreement with the Scots on his 
account, to bring about an invasion of England, 
while the city mob, which was rabidly Presby- 
terian, forced the hand of the House of Com- 
mons and compelled its members to defy the 
army, it became evident that Oliver had to choose 
his course. Reluctantly he was pushed along the 
road of military revolution. The speaker and the 
Independent members of Parliament, in fear of 
the London mob, took refuge with the army, 
whither Cromwell himself had already gone. On 
June loth the army issued a manifesto, demand- 
ing a settlement of the difficulties upon terms 
which it approved. Early in August it marched 

118 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 

in formidable and orderly parade through the city, 
overawing resistance by its mere appearance, and 
Parliament submitted. This was the real begin- 
ning of the military interference which terminated 
in the military dictatorship of one man. If Crom- 
well is to be blamed for what he did to the Long 
Parliament, this is the step for which he is to be 
blamed most; yet it was a step approved by 
Milton, Fairfax, Ireton, and the great majority 
of the best and most high-minded believers in 
English liberty who were then alive. The con- 
duct of the King and the Parliament had been 
such that it is difficult to see how any other 
course was possible. 

Cromwell did his best to stop the Revolution 
at the point it had now reached. For months he 
endeavored to make terms with the King on the 
conditions outlined above ; and he not only put a 
stop to the extreme democratic agitation of the 
Levellers and refused to further the plan for a re- 
publican commonwealth, but, with prompt sever- 
ity, repressed a mutiny that broke out under the 
cry of " England's Freedom and Soldiers' Rights." 
He disregarded the grumbling of the army until 
he became convinced that Charles was incurably 
false, incurably treacherous and untrustworthy, 
and was fomenting a counter-revolution. Then 
Cromwell turned from him with loathing, and 

1 19 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

made up his mind to trust to the sword, and to 
strike down anyone, even the King himself, if the 
need warranted it. 

It was high time for action. In Ireland the 
Royalists, the Catholics, and even the Presbyte- 
rians, were uniting against the Parliament. The 
Scotch, under the lead of Hamilton and the Pres- 
byterian Royalists, declared for the King; the 
English Presbyterians were for him to the extent 
that they were against the army ; and throughout 
England the Cavaliers were arming for an upris- 
ing. Dark indeed seemed the peril. It had taken 
four years for the English Presbyterians, the Scotch, 
and the New Model, the army of the Indepen- 
dents, to conquer the Royalists, and now the New 
Model was pitted single-handed against the Scotch 
and the Royalists, while the Presbyterians were at 
best lukewarm. Nevertheless, exactly as in the 
French Revolution, the victory lay with the 
Mountain when it was brought face to face not 
only with hostile parties in France but with the 
rest of armed Europe, so now the fierce energy of 
the New Model, with the greatest of Englishmen 
at its head, was destined to prove too much for 
its foes. The grim Ironsides rallied to their cause 
with the devotion of fanatics, and the well-ordered 
discipline of splendid soldiers. With fierce ex- 
hortations and sermons, with internal searchings 




John Milton. 

From the drawing in crayon by Faithorne at Bayfordbury. 
By permission of William Clinton-Baker, Esq., 1.1'. 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 

of spirit, with outpourings of prayer, they made 
ready for battle, and in each dark Puritan heart 
welled the determination not only to put down 
armed resistance, but to take the last great ven- 
geance upon the King, the cause of the blood- 
guiltiness. 

In April, 1648, the Second Civil War broke 
out. The gentry of Wales were a unit for the 
King, and the commonalty followed them. The 
Cavaliers rose in force in the North, and the Scotch 
prepared to send a formidable army across the 
border to their aid; and there were Royalist out- 
breaks everywhere, even in the southern and east- 
ern counties. Berwick, Carlyle, Chester, Pem- 
broke, Colchester, were seized and held for the 
King. The Presbyterians of London were in 
commotion ; the Presbyterians in Parliament itself 
were half-hearted and divided; but the Indepen- 
dents and the army had no doubts. Fairfax 
marched into Kent and Essex, and, after some hard 
fighting, trampled under foot the insurrection. 
One Parliamentary Colonel whipped the Welsh at 
St. Fagan's ; another crushed out a Royalist rising 
in Lancashire; General Lambert was sent to the 
North, where Sir Marmaduke Langdale — Oliver's 
old foe at Naseby — had raised Yorkshire for the 
King. Oliver himself marched to the siege of 
Pembroke, which, owing to lack of cannon, he 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

could not take until July nth. This ended the 
Welsh War. The risings in the south and centre 
had been thoroughly stamped out ; the fleet, which 
had partially revolted, was for the most part 
brought back to loyalty ; and there remained only 
to deal with the Northern Royalists and the Scotch 
army under the Duke of Hamilton, which had by 
this time crossed the border. 

The composition of Hamilton's army and the 
history of events in both Scotland and Ireland at 
this moment, are alike sufficient to show the tangle 
in which politics then were — the kaleidoscopic 
changes in the relations of factions and parties, 
and the seeming minuteness of the points of dif- 
ference over which these same parties waged 
ferocious and resolute war. Hamilton's cavalry 
was commanded by Munro, who had come over 
from Ulster to take part in the invasion of Eng- 
land. Munro and the Scotch Presbyterians of 
Ulster had, during the years immediately suc- 
ceeding the great Irish uprising, been the formi- 
dable and merciless opponents of the Irish of the 
North. But when the English Civil War was 
fairly on, the English Royalists in Ireland — Episco- 
palians and Catholics alike — gradually lost their 
animosity toward their Irish foes, in their greater 
animosity toward the Puritans, and finally the 
Presbyterians followed suit. This resulted in the 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 

release of Munro and a large part of the Presby- 
terian force in Ulster, who went to the aid of 
Hamilton. Hamilton's own government was Pres- 
byterian and ostentatiously devoted to the Cove- 
nant. It is very difficult for a modern observer 
to see any essential point of difference, either in 
their attitude toward the Covenant, toward the 
King, or toward England ; between the party that 
at the moment controlled Scotland, and the party 
which was soon to drive it out of power. Yet 
the bitterness between them was intense. The 
bulk of the Presbyterian ministers, and the fiercest 
and most intense Presbyterian zealots, hated Ham- 
ilton and his fellows with mortal hatred, and were 
only waiting their chance to rise against them. 

Cromwell advanced to the encounter with en- 
tire confidence, and sternly anxious to get at his 
foes. He was a thorough Englishman at a time 
when, to the thorough Englishman, the Scotch 
were classed with other aliens. Bitterly though 
he hated the P».oyalists, he yet acknowledged them 
as fellow-countrymen; but he made no such ac- 
knowledgment in the case of the Scots. He ex- 
plained that he preferred the Cavalier interest to 
the Scottish interest, just as he preferred the Scot- 
tish to the Irish ; and he now moved against ene- 
mies whom he regarded not merely as enemies to 
his cause, but as enemies to his country. 

123 






OLIVER CROMWELL 



There seemed every reason for the Scots to be 
confident. Even with their help the Parliamen- 
tarians had been able to put down the Royalists 
only at the cost of four years of hard fighting ; 
and now the Scotch and the Royalists were to act 
together. They were to be pitted against Crom- 
well, the best Parliamentary commander, to be 
sure ; but the Scotch had done at least as well as 
the average of the allies at the victory of Marston 
Moor, and still had in mind the memory of their 
easy successes against their English foes in the two 
Bishops' Wars. 

The great victories of the Parliamentary army 
had hitherto been won when the odds in numbers 
were in their favor ; now, they were about to fight 
with the odds over two to one against them. 
Hamilton's army was about 21,000 strong, includ- 
ing 3,000 Yorkshire Royalists under Langdale. 
Cromwell had only some 9,000 men ; but the 
great bulk of them were veterans, who under his 
leadership had become the finest soldiers of the 
age. 

Hamilton moved slowly south toward Preston, 
his army scattered in a long line, Langdale at the 
head, and Munro bringing up the rear. Crom- 
well abandoned his heavy baggage-train that it 
might not encumber his movements ; Lambert 
joined him, and he marched with fiery speed to 

124 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 

strike his foes. The Scotch, confident in their 
numbers, and ignorant of the movements of their 
speedy antagonist, advanced in loose order. On 
August 17th Cromwell struck their army; by 
which time Hamilton's straggling march had re- 
sulted in Langdale's taking position to cover its 
left flank. The Scotch were partially aware of 
their danger and were uneasily trying to concen- 
trate. Langdale was left to bear the shock of the 
first attack single-handed. Cromwell appreciated, 
as well as any commander that ever lived, the 
vital element of time ; the need for taking full 
advantage of what the moment brought forth. 
His headlong march had resulted in some of his 
soldiers lagging behind the others, but he had 
gained what he wanted ; he had surprised his foes 
when they were unprepared to use their superi- 
ority of force, and he dashed at them as soon as 
his foremost men came up, determined to destroy 
them in detail. Langdale made a stiff fight, and 
owing to the character of the country — the fields 
were small, and the fences strong and high — the 
cavalry was not able to do much, so that the de- 
cisive fighting was done by the infantry, which 
was not usually the case in these wars. The 
struggle took place about four miles from Preston, 
near which town, but south of the river Ribble, 
the bulk of the Scotch foot were gathered. 

125 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

For four hours Langdale's men clung to their 
hedges and buildings, regiment after regiment of 
the Cromwellians fighting to dislodge them. 
Says Cromwell : " Our men fought with incredi- 
ble valor and resolution . . . often coming 
to push of Pike, and to close Fire, and always 
making the Enemy to recoil . . . the Enemy 
making, though he was still worsted, very stiff 
and sturdy resistance. Colonel Dean's and 
Colonel Pride's, outwinging the enemy, could not 
come to so much share of the Action . . . 
the Enemy shogging down toward the Bridge, 
and keeping almost all in reserve that so he might 
bring fresh commands often to fight." 

The Scotch sent some men and ammunition to 
Langdale, but made no serious effort to help him, 
and continued their march. At last he was over- 
powered and driven into the town. As soon as 
his men were dislodged from the hedges and en- 
closures, the Cromwellian horse fell furiously 
upon them, utterly routing and scattering them ; 
at the same time, the Cromwellian foot, pushing 
forward, drove back the Scotch foot, which had 
been posted near the bridge to secure a passage 
for Langdale across the Ribble, and cut off the 
fugitives from the rest of the army. 

The Ironsides thundered into the streets of 
Preston at the heels of Langdale and the flying 

126 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 

remnants of his forces. Hamilton led one or two 
charges, and for a moment checked the pursuit, 
but it was now too late to retrieve matters, and 
soon afterward the whole of his army was again 
in panic rout. The beaten cavalry fled north, 
goaded by the Cromwellian sword, until they 
reached the rear guard under Munro. Most of 
the Yorkshire and Scotch infantry north of the 
Ribble were killed, captured, or scattered ; a few 
only escaped to the Scotch army south of the 
Ribble by swimming across it. 

The day thus ended with the defeat of part of 
the Scotch forces, who lost in killed or captured, 
5,000 men, besides those who were dispersed. 
Moreover, the Scotch army was cut in two; 
Munro being to the north, separated from all the 
rest, who, under Hamilton, were completely cut 
off from their base in Scotland. Sending a few 
troops to harry the flying horsemen, Cromwell 
turned to deal with the Scotch main army, which 
was even yet more numerous than his own. 
But the Scotch were cowed by the success of 
Cromwell's utterly unexpected attack. The 
soldiers had lost confidence in their leaders, and 
they were cut off from their own country, and, 
therefore, from all hope of supplies. A council 
of war was held that night, and the retreat was 
continued. The fagged-out Cromwellians fol- 

127 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

lowed and harassed them. The horse, under 
Colonel Thornhaugh, rode into their rear ranks 
and bothered and detained them, though at cost 
of the life of the Colonel, who was shot in one of 
the fierce struggles. Again and again the Scotch 
stood, but each time to be beaten ; the last stand 
being made at Winwick church, under a " little 
spark in a blue bonnet " who himself was slain. 
Here they lined the hedges with musketeers, and 
filled the lane with their pikemen, and hours 
went by before the Puritans, under Pride, finally 
pushed their charge home, and gained possession 
of the place which had been held so stubbornly. 
Both sides were utterly worn out, and it was im- 
possible to urge the pursuit as rapidly and strong- 
ly as Cromwell hoped. Finally, leaving Lambert 
to deal with the shattered fragments of Hamil- 
ton's command, Cromwell turned north and fol- 
lowed Munro. 

The victory was overwhelming. Two thou- 
sand Scotch and Royalists had been slain, and 
10,000 were captured; more than Cromwell's 
whole force. Almost all the generals were taken ; 
Hamilton was afterward beheaded. The fate of 
the captured rank and file was hard. Through- 
out the First Civil War, the common soldiers, 
when taken, had either been exchanged or re- 
leased, or often enough had enlisted on the side 




The Death 



Signed by diver Cromwell and other members of 



>** 







'^ '- - - MiiriuMmMiiiiiiMiifiiiHi 



Charles I. 

e original in the library of the House of Lords. 




THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 

of the victors; but the Puritan generals and 
those behind them were in no mood to take a 
merciful view of men whom they regarded as 
wanton offenders, whether they were Scotchmen 
or Englishmen. The captives of Preston battle 
were sold into slavery; some being sent to the 
Virginia planters, and others to the Venetian 
Government, for galley slaves. When the Puri- 
tans could act thus toward their fellow-English- 
men, and toward the Scotch Presbyterians who 
were so nearly of their own creed, there is small 
cause for wonder in the treatment afterward ac- 
corded the Irish. It was a merciless age, the age 
of Tilly and Wallenstein, and we cannot judge 
its great men by the canons of to-day. 

This was the first time that Cromwell had 
actually been in supreme command in a great 
victory, and too much praise cannot be accorded 
him for his hardihood, energy, and skill. The 
speed of his motions and his prompt decision 
had rendered it possible for him to strike home 
at his adversary in the flank, and to eat him up 
piecemeal. During three days of incessant march- 
ing and fighting he halted only to do battle or to 
take the rest absolutely needed ; and at the end 
of that time the enemy's foot had been killed, 
captured, or dispersed to the last man, and his horse 
was a beaten rabble, flying toward the border. 

129 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

The battle of Preston put an end to the Second 
Civil War. Colchester capitulated to Fairfax 
immediately afterward. The part of the fleet 
that had revolted had come back under Prince 
Charles and Rupert, to cooperate with the risen 
Royalists, but could do nothing; most of the 
ships in time returned to their allegiance to the 
Parliament. The indomitable Rupert, with seven 
ships, kept the sea and made a long cruise, which 
finally degenerated into mere buccaneering. 
Blake, whom the Parliament made Admiral, pur- 
sued him, captured most of his ships, and finally 
forced him to take refuge in France. In Scotland, 
Argyle and the Presbyterian ministers — the Kirk 
party — on the news of Hamilton's overthrow, 
promptly rose in the so-called Whigamore raid. 
Munro fell back, plundering right and left until 
he crossed the border. 

Cromwell's exertions had been so severe that 
he could not follow the flying Royalists with his 
usual rapidity. The army had been long with- 
out pay ; they had not a penny with which to get 
their horses shod, and so many horses had been 
slain and were lamed or done out that a large 
number of the troopers were on foot, and the 
others could hardly spur their jaded mounts into 
a trot. Munro was not only a ruthless plunderer, 
but a hard fighter, and on his arrival in Scotland 

130 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 

Argyle felt doubtful as to his capacity to cope 
with him, and sent to Cromwell for assistance. 
Cromwell promptly invaded Scotland, being care- 
ful to pose as the ally of Argyle and the Kirk, and 
therefore the true friend of the Scottish nation. 
According to his custom, he rigorously sup- 
pressed plundering. All resistance withered away 
before him. He was received at Edinburgh as 
a powerful and honored ally, and before he re- 
crossed the border the Scotch were again avowed 
supporters, for the time being at least, of the Par- 
liament. 

The enemy in arms had been defeated. It re- 
mained to deal with the Parliament and the 
Presbyterian party. Some had been active for 
the King ; most had been lukewarm ; the victory 
had been a victory for the army, and therefore for 
the Independents. Neither Cromwell nor the 
army was of a temper to refrain from finishing 
matters. Before the struggle was decided Crom- 
well had written Fairfax : " I pray God teach this 
nation and those that are over us . . . what 
the mind of God may be in all this, and what our 
duty is. Surely it is not that the poor, godly 
people of this Kingdom should still be made the 
object of wrath and anger, nor that our God would 
have our necks under a yoke of bondage. For 
these things that have lately come to pass have 

131 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

been the wonderful works of God, breaking the 
rod of the oppressor." 

He was not in the least a doctrinaire Republican 
or Parliamentarian; he believed as little in the 
divine right of majorities as in the divine right of 
kings. Neither would he have admitted such a 
right as existing in an army, or, as yet, in him- 
self. But it was impossible to stand still. He 
had to act with some party, though with none was 
he in entire accord; for one was hostile, another 
hopelessly undecided, the third prone to extreme 
measures and representing only a minority in the 
nation. He could only act with the last, and yet 
this meant an overturn of the recognized govern- 

V mental authorities. Whether he would or notj 
he had to proceed along the path of revolution. 

The Presbyterians — the men who controlled 
Parliament — were halting between two burdens. 
They would not push far enough against the King 
to make the Revolution a success, or to put a 
permanent end to despotism ; and they would not 
eat their past words and deeds by turning wholly 
to his support. The King himself was obstinately 
bent on keeping the supreme power in his hands 
and setting the people under his feet, whatever he 
might promise ; and this was the attitude of the 
large Royalist and Episcopalian party, which had 
showed, in supporting him, either that it cared lit- 

132 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 

tie for liberty and eagerly championed a servility 
which it misnamed loyalty, or else that it feared 
disorder more than tyranny. 

On the other hand, the determined foes of Ab- 
solutism, the armed Independents, were even 
more cut off from the bulk of the nation by their 
good qualities than by their shortcomings. Their 
advocacy of toleration for every creed, their desire 
for legal reform, and their strong democratic tend- 
encies, all put them so far in advance of the rest 
of the nation as to be completely out of touch 
with it ; and they offended it even more than their 
harshness and narrowness, and the behavior of the 
bands of fantastic enthusiasts in their ranks. More- 
over, the sincerity of their convictions, at a time 
when the practical application of belief in the rule 
of the majority was entirely new and strange, 
drove them to rely on their strong right arms, in- 
stead of upon the votes of a people which was 
mainly hostile or apathetic. When Cromwell 
acted with them, heedless of what the majority 
might think, he was making ready for a time 
when he might choose in turn to disregard the 
majority within their own ranks. 

Though neither Cromwell nor the Independents 
believed in the abstract in employing the army as 
an instrument of government, they were face to 
face with a condition of affairs in which, partly be- 

133 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

cause of their own shortcomings, but very much 
more because of the shortcomings of their antago- 
nists, they were driven to adopt this as the only 
possible course. Doubtless Cromwell was still act- 
ing as he sincerely believed the interests of the na- 
tion demanded. In the complex tissue of motives 
which go to determine a man's deeds it is rarely 
possible to say that there is not some, and mayhap 
even a strong, element of self-interest and of desire 
for personal aggrandizement ; yet Cromwell's con- 
duct toward the King goes to show that he would 
gladly have saved him had not the behavior of 
this typical Stuart been such as to render it im- 
possible for an upright and far-seeing friend of 
English liberty longer to remain his ally. 

Parliament had no sooner been relieved by the 
action of the army from all danger from the 
King's adherents, than in September it proceeded 
to open negotiations with the King. These ne 
gotiations in effect aimed at the destruction of 
the army by uniting Parliament and King against 
it; among other things, they expressly excluded 
any toleration for the sects which made up the 
strength of the army. It would have been inex 
cusable folly for the men who had won the victory 
to submit to such action. The army, headed by 
; Ireton, demanded a purge of the House which 
! would rid it of the members so treacherous to the 

134 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 

interests of the nation. Ireton and his followers 
then laid before Fairfax a remonstrance, which 
included a demand that the King should be 
brought to justice for the " treason," " blood," and 
" mischief" of which he had been guilty. Fairfax 
opposed this and carried the army with him in 
favor of a substitute which merely requested the 
King to assent to a constitutional plan which 
would have limited his powers precisely as those 
of Oueen Victoria are now limited, and would have 
made the Constitution of England what it now is. 
A more moderate proposal was never made by 
victorious revolutionists, and it shows conclusively 
that the fault was not with Cromwell and his fol- 
lowers when they were forced to overturn the 
King and the Parliament. ! But Charles promptly / i 
rejected the proposals and thereby signed his own ( ' 
death-warrant. He had just sought, in Crom-/ 
well's words, " to vassalize us to a foreign nation," 
and now, after having twice plunged England into 
Civil War, and shown himself eager to submit 
her to the power of the alien, he obstinately re- 
fused a plan which would not merely have left 
him unpunished, but would have given him all 
the power of a constitutional monarch ; a power 
greater than that which the House of Orange at 
that time enjoyed in Holland. 

The House of Commons stood firm in its posi- 
135 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

tion, and against the position of the army, which 
thereupon marched into London ; and on Decem- 
ber 6th, Colonel Pride carried through the famous 
" Pride's Purge." He stood with a military guard 
at the door of the House, and turned back or ar- 
rested the members who had voted for a continu- 
ation of the negotiations with the the King. This 
was, of course, a purely revolutionary measure, 
with no warrant, save as Ireton and Harrison — 
the Republican generals — had said, " the height of 
necessity to save the Kingdom from a new War." 
It was but the second step ; the all-important one 
had been taken long before, when the army first 
marched into London to see that the Parliament 
did its liking. 

Cromwell still strove to save the King's life. 
Through the exertions of Ireton a small majority 
of the army council resolved for mercy, and made 
a last effort to conclude a treaty with the King ; 
but the King would not listen to them, and he 
thus put it out of their power any longer to delay 
his fate. On January l, 1649, tne House of 
Commons resolved to try him for treason to the 
kingdom. The Lords refused to pass the ordi- 
nance, whereupon the House of Commons de- 
cided to disregard them and to act on its own 
authority. On January 6th it erected a High 
Court of Justice for the trial of the King, on the 

136 








etfy-- 



Pride's Purge. 

Colonel Pride, who commanded the guard stationed in the lobby of the House, had in his hand a list on 
rich were the names of certain members, while Lord Grey, of Groby, himself a member of the House, stood 
his side ready to point out to him the members in question. As each one of these approached the door of 
c Huuse he was turned back. 



I 






THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 

ground that he had wickedly endeavored to sub- 
vert the people's rights, had levied war against 
them, and when he had been spared had again 
raised new commotions in order to enslave and 
destroy the nation. Cromwell had finally thrown 
his doubts to the winds, and he supported the res- 
olution with all his vigor. When the legality of 
the action was questioned, he retorted : " I tell you 
we will cut off his head with the crown upon it!" 
The grim Puritan leaders were at last to have 
their will on " the man of blood." On the 27th, 
sentence of death was passed upon the King, and 
on January 30, 1649, ne was beheaded on the 
scaffold in front of Whitehall, meeting his death 
with firm dignity. 

Justice was certainly done, and until the death- 
penalty is abolished for all malefactors, we need 
waste scant sympathy on the man who so hated 
the upholders of freedom that his vengeance 
against Eliot could be satisfied only with Eliot's 
death; who so utterly lacked loyalty that he 
signed the death-warrant of Strafford when Straf- 
ford had merely done his bidding ; who had made 
the blood of Englishmen flow like water, to estab- 
lish his right to rule as he saw best over their lives 
and property ; and who, with incurable duplicity, 
incurable double-dealing, had sought to turn the 
generosity of his victorious foes to their own hurt. 

137 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

Any man who has ever had anything to do with 
the infliction of the death-penalty, or indeed with 
any form of punishment, knows that there are sen- 
timental beings so constituted that their sympa- 
thies are always most keenly aroused on behalf of 
the offender who pays the penalty for a deed of 
peculiar atrocity. The explanation probably is 
that the more conspicuous the crime, the more 
their attention is arrested, and the more acute 
their manifestations of sympathy become. At the 
time when the great bulk even of civilized man- 
kind believed in the right of a king, not merely 
to rule, but to oppress, the action of the Puritans 
struck horror throughout Europe. Even Repub- 
lican Holland was stirred to condemnation, and 
as the King was the symbol of the State, and as 
custom dies hard, generations passed during which 
the great majority of good and loyal, but not par- 
ticularly far-sighted or deep-thinking men, spoke 
with intense sympathy of Charles, and with the most 
sincere horror of the regicides, especially Crom- 
well. This feeling was most natural then. It may 
be admitted to be natural in certain Englishmen, 
even at the present day. But what shall we say of 
Americans who now take the same view ; who erect 
stained-glass windows in a Philadelphia church to 
the memory of the " Royal Martyr," or in New 
York or Boston hold absurd festivals in his praise ? 

138 



THE SECOND CIVIL WAR 

The best men in England approved the execu- 
tion of the King, not only as a work of necessity, 
but as right on moral grounds. Two weeks after 
the execution, Milton — perhaps the loftiest soul 
in the whole Puritan party, full though it was of 
lofty souls — wrote his pamphlet justifying the 
right of the nation to depose, or, if need be, exe- 
cute, tyrants and wicked kings. His arguments 
never have been, and never can be, successfully 
controverted on grounds of justice and morality. 
There is room for greater question on the ground 
of expediency. Some of the ablest historians and 
politicians have argued that the execution was a 
mistake, as making the King a martyr, and as 
transferring to his son, Charles II., all the loyalty 
that had been his, while the hatred and distrust 
could not be transferred. Yet, it certainly seems 
that even on the score of expediency, Cromwell 
and the regicides were right and that the event 
justified their judgment. While Charles was alive 
there could have been no peace in any event ; and 
during Cromwell's lifetime Charles II. could gain 
no foothold in England— for there was never a 
member of the House of Stuart that could stand 
in battle or in council before the stern Lord of the 
English Commonwealth. If in later years great 
Oliver could only have managed to agree with 
the bulk of liberty-loving Englishmen on some 

139 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

system of government by law, it is not probable 
that the memory of the King's death would have 
prevented the perpetuation of such a government. 
Carlyle's mind is often warped ; his vision often 
dim ; but there are times when he speaks like an 
inspired seer, and never more so than when dealing 
with the execution of the Stuart King: "This 
action of the English Regicides did in effect strike 
a damp like death through the heart of Flunkyism 
universally in this world. Whereof Flunkyism, 
Cant, Cloth- Worship, or whatever ugly name it 
have, has gone about incurably sick ever since ; 
and is now at length, in these generations, very 
rapidly dying. The like of which action will not 
be needed for a thousand years again. . . . 
Thus ends the Second Civil War. In Regicide; 
in a Commonwealth, and Keepers of the Liberties 
of England. In punishment of delinquents ; in 
abolition of Cobwebs — if it be possible in a Gov- 
ernment of Heroism and Veracity ; at lowest of 
Anti-Flunkyism, Anti-Cant, and the endeavor after 
Heroism and Veracity." 



140 




Interior of Westminster Hall 

Where Parliament sat and where King Charles I. was tried and sentenced. 



IV 

THE IRISH AND SCOTCH WARS 

THE successful Revolutionary party now en- 
acted that the people of England and of all 
the dominions and territories thereunto belonging 
were constituted and established as a Common- 
wealth, or Free State, to be governed by the rep- 
resentatives of the people in Parliament and by 
whomsoever the Parliament should appoint as 
officers and ministers ; (the King and the House 
of Lords being both abolished. No provision was 
at first made by which any man should lawfully 
be recognized as chief in the new Commonwealth; 
but, as a matter of fact, there was one man, and 
one man only, who had to be acknowledged, 
however unwillingly, as master and leader. There 
were many upright and able civil servants ; many 
high-minded and fervent reformers ; many grim 
and good captains: but waist-high above them 
all rose the mighty and strenuous figure of 
Oliver Cromwell. It may well be that, hitherto, 
personal ambition had played an entirely sub- 
ordinate part in all his actions. Now, in the 

141 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

turmoil of the Revolution, in the whirlpool of 
currents which none but the strongest man could 
breast, he became ever more and more conscious 
of his own great powers — powers which he knew 
were shared by no other man. With the sense 
of power came the overmastering desire to seize 
and wield it. 

The first thing he had to do was to stop the 
Revolution where it was. In every such Revo- 
lution some of the original adherents of the move- 
ment drop off at each stage, feeling that it has 
gone too far ; and at every halt the extremists in- 
sist on further progress. As stage succeeds stage, 
these extremists become a constantly diminishing 
body, and the irritation and alarm of the growing 
remainder increase. If the movement is not 
checked at the right moment by the good-sense 
and moderation of the people themselves, or if 
some master-spirit does not appear, the extremists 
carry it ever farther forward until it provokes the 
most violent reaction ; and when the master-spirit 
does stop it, he has to guard against both the men 
who think it has gone too far, and the men who 
think it has not gone far enough. 

The extreme Levellers, the extreme Republi- 
cans, and, above all, the fierce and moody fanatics 
who sought after an impossible, and for the 
matter of that a highly undesirable, realization of 

142 



THE IRISH AND SCOTCH WARS 

their ideal of God's kingdom on this earth — all 
these, together with the mere men of unsettled 
minds and the believers in what we now call com- 
munism, socialism, and nihilism, were darkly 
threatening the new government. 

Men arose who called themselves prophets of 
new social and religious dispensations ; and every 
wild theory found its fanatic advocates, ready at 
any moment to turn from advocacy to action. In 
the name of political and social liberty, some 
demanded that all men should be made free and 
equal by abolishing money and houses, living in 
tents, and dividing all food and clothing alike. 
In the name of religious reform others took to 
riding naked in the market-place, "for a sign"; 
to shouting for the advent of King Jesus; or to 
breaking up church services by noisy controver- 
sies with the preachers. The extreme Anabaptist 
and Quaker agitators were overshadowed by fan- 
tastic figures whose followers hailed them as in- 
carnations of the Most High. 

Black trouble gloomed without. The Com- 
monwealth had not a friend in Europe. In the 
British Isles Scotland declared for Charles II. as 
the King, not only of Scotland, but of Great 
Britain. In Ireland but a couple of towns were 
held for the Parliament. 

It was to the reconquest of Ireland that the 
143 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

Commonwealth first addressed itself, and naturally 
Cromwell was chosen for the work. He was 
given the rank of Lieutenant-General ; but before 
he started he had to deal with dangerous mutinies 
and uprisings in the army. The religious sec- 
taries and political levellers, who had given to the 
army the fiery zeal that made it irresistible by 
Parliament or King, English Royalists or Scotch 
Covenanter, had also been infected with a spirit 
peculiarly liable to catch flame from such agita- 
tions as were going on round-about. Here and 
there, in regiment after regiment, were sudden up- 
liftings of the banner of revolt in the name of 
every kind of human freedom, and often of some 
fierce religious doctrine quite incompatible with 
human freedom. Cromwell acted with his usual 
terrible energy, scattered the mutineers, shot the 
ringleaders, and reduced army and kingdom alike 
to obedience and order. Then he made ready for 
the invasion of Ireland. 

The predominant motives for the various muti- 
nies in the army, offer sufficient proof of its utter 
unlikeness to any other army. At the outset of 
the civil wars the Ironsides were simply volun- 
teers of the very highest type ; not wholly unlike, at 
least in moral qualities, some of those belated 
Cromwellians — the Boers of to-day. They did not 1 
take up soldiering as a profession, but primarily to 

144 




General Sir Thomas Fairfax. 

From the Portrait by Robert Walker at Althorp. 
By permission uf Earl Spencer, K.G. 



THE IRISH AND SCOTCH WARS 

achieve certain definite moral objects. Of course, 
as the force gradually grew into a permanent body, 
it changed in some respects ; but the old spirit 
remained strong. The soldiers became in a sense 
regulars ; but they bore no resemblance to regu- 
lars of the ordinary type — to regulars such as 
served under Turenne or Marlborough, Frederick 
the Great or Wellington. If in Grant's army 
a very large number of the men, including almost 
all the forceful, natural leaders, had been of the 
stamp of Ossawatomie Brown, we should have 
had an army much like Cromwell's. Such an 
army might usually be a power for good and 
sometimes a power for evil; but under all circum- 
stances, when controlled by a master hand, it was 
certain to show itself one of the most formidable 
weapons ever forged in the workshop of human 
passion and purpose. 

Matters in Ireland were in a perfect welter of 
confusion. Eight years had elapsed since the 
original rising of the native Irish. A murderous 
and butcherly warfare had been carried on 
throughout these years, but not along the lines of 
original division. On the contrary, when Crom- 
well landed, there had been a complete shifting 
of the parties to the contest, every faction having 
in turn fought every other faction, and, more ex- 
traordinary still, having at some time or other 

145 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

joined its religious foes in attacking a rival faction 
of its own creed. The original rising was in 
Ulster, and was aimed at the English and Scotch 
settlers who had been planted under James in the 
lands from which the Irish had been evicted. 
These " plantations " under James, not to speak of 
the scourge of Wentworth under Charles, were on 
a par with the whole conduct of the English tow- 
ard Ireland for generations, and gave as ample 
a justification for the uprising as in the Nether- 
lands the Spaniards had given the Dutch. From 
the standpoint of the Irish, the war was simply 
the most righteous of wars — for hearthstone, for 
Church, and for country. 

This first uprising was one of Celtic Catholics. 
In the Pale and elsewhere, here and there through- 
out Ireland, were large numbers of Old-English 
Catholics; these, unlike the Celts, did not wish 
separation from England, but did wish complete 
religious liberty for themselves, and, if possible, 
Catholic supremacy. The Episcopalian and 
Royalist English throughout Ireland, under the 
lead of the Earl of Ormond, favored the King. 
The Puritan oligarchy of Dublin favored the Par- 
liament, and were in touch with the Scotch Pres- 
byterians of Ulster. The rising began to spread 
from Ulster southward. The Catholics of the 
Pale were at first loyal to the King, but the Prot- 

146 



THE IRISH AND SCOTCH WARS 

estant leaders, in striking back at the insurgents, 
harried friend and foe alike, until the Pale joined 
with Ulster. After this, all Ireland revolted. 
Only a few fortified and garrisoned towns were 
held for the English. 

Violent alterations of policy and of fortune 
followed. Under the lead of the Roman Catholic 
clergy the revolt was consolidated. Unswerving 
loyalty to the King was proclaimed, war was de- 
nounced against the Puritans, and the re-establish- 
ment of Roman Catholicism as the State religion 
of Ireland was demanded. On the Puritan side 
the lords justices in Dublin nominally acknowl- 
edged the King's authority, but really stood for 
the Parliament and hampered Ormond, who, 
while a stanch Protestant, was an ardent Royal- 
ist. Ormond gained one or two victories over the 
insurgents in spite of the way in which the lords 
justices interfered with him. Charles created him 
marquis, and he took command of the English 
interest, drove out the lords justices, and con- 
cluded a truce for one year with the Catholic 
party, in September, 1643. They gave Charles a 
free contribution of ,£30,000, and sent over some 
Irish troops to aid Montrose and the other Roy- 
alist leaders in Scotland, besides setting Ormond 
free to transfer part of his forces to the King in 
England. But Munro and the Ulster Scotch re- 

147 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

fused to recognize the armistice, took the Cove- 
nant, and declared against the King; while, in 
the south, certain Protestant sea-coast towns, 
under the lead of Lord Inchiquin, followed suit 
and acknowledged the Parliament. Months of 
tortuous negotiations followed, King Charles 
showing the same readiness in promise, and utter 
indifference in performance, while dealing with 
the Irish as while dealing with the English. The 
treachery of the King was made manifest by the 
discovery of his secret treaty with the Irish, when 
Sligo was captured. 

Meanwhile, the Papal nuncio, an Italian, had 
arrived, and exhorted the Irish to refuse any peace 
with the King except on the basis of the complete 
reinstatement of the Catholic Church. He roused 
what would now be called the ultramontanes 
against the moderate Catholic party which was 
acting with Ormond. Their wrangles caused a 
fatal delay, for by the time the moderates tri- 
umphed the King had been made a prisoner. 
Their treaty of peace with the King was not 
signed till September, 1645, and it amounted to 
nothing, for the adherents of the Parliament re- 
jected it on the one side, and the extreme Catholic 
party, the utterly intolerant and fanatical Catholics, 
under the nuncio, refused to be bound by it on 
the other. In the north the Irish were led by 

14s 






THE IRISH AND SCOTCH WARS 

OwenO'Neil, a member of the great Ulster house 
of that name, and under him they had beaten 
Munro and the Scotch. He now hurried to the 
support of the nuncio. The moderate Catholic 
leaders and Ormond fled to Dublin at his ap- 
proach, and he was joined, after some hesitation, 
by Preston, the leader of the Irish forces in the 
south. In 1647, Ormond, at his wits' end, 
handed over Dublin to the agents of the Parlia- 
ment, and joined the Royalist refugees in France. 
This for a moment eliminated the Royalists, 
and left the party of the nuncio, the party of the bi- 
gots and intolerant extremists, supreme among 
the Irish. But when Jones, the Puritan leader, 
marched out of Dublin and defeated Preston, 
while in the south Lord Inchiquin won some 
butchering victories, the party of the moderates 
again raised its head. Then there was a new and 
bewildering turn of the kaleidoscope. Inchiquin 
suddenly became offended with the Parliament, 
made overtures to Preston, and then to Ormond. 
A coalition was formed between the Royalist 
Protestants in Munster and the moderate Catholics. 
The nuncio threatened the moderates with ex- 
communication and interdict, and fled to O'Neil's 
camp. Preston and Inchiquin joined forces and 
marched against O'Neil, so that civil war broke 
out among the insurgents themselves. 

149 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

Colonel Jones, the victor over Preston, felt 
doubtful of his own troops, who included a num- 
ber of Royalists, and, extraordinary to relate, he 
actually made terms with the nuncio and O'Neil 
as against the Protestant Royalists and moderate 
Catholics — the Ultramontanes so hating the moder- 
ate Catholics that they preferred to come to terms 
with the Puritans. Ormond now came over from 
France to head the moderates, the party of the 
Royalist Catholics and Protestants. Peace was 
declared between Ormond and the Supreme Coun- 
cil of Dublin in the King's name. 

But hardly had peace been declared when news 
arrived of the King's execution. Ormond pro- 
claimed Charles II., at Cork; most of the Irish 
outside of Ulster united under him, and Munro 
and the Scotch Presbyterians joined him. The 
nuncio fled the country in despair. The rupture 
between the Presbyterians and Independents was 
complete, and the Scotch became the open enemies 
of the English. They began the siege of Derry, 
which Coote held for the Parliament. At the 
same time they confronted O'Neil and the Ulster 
Irish, who were acting in alliance with Monk, 
who held Dundalk for the Parliament by order of 
Colonel Jones. Inchiquin captured Drogheda 
for the Confederates. Monk's garrison mutinied, 
and he had to surrender Dundalk. Ormond be- 

150 



THE IRISH AND SCOTCH WARS 

gan the siege of Dublin, but was routed by Jones, 
one of the sturdiest of the many sturdy Puritan 
fighters. Meanwhile, the Puritan Parliament had 
disavowed the alliance with O'Neil and the Ulster 
Irish, and the latter were thus forced into the arms 
of Ormond, who found himself at the head of all 
the Irish and English Catholics, of the Scotch 
Presbyterians in Ulster, and of the Royalist Prot- 
estants elsewhere in Ireland. It was at this time 
that Cromwell landed. 

The exact condition of affairs in Ireland should 
be carefully borne in mind, because it is often al- 
leged, in excuse of Cromwell's merciless massa- 
cres, that he was acting with the same justification 
that the English had when they put down the 
Indian Mutiny with righteous and proper se- 
verity. Without a doubt, Cromwell and most 
Englishmen felt this way ; and in the case of the 
average Englishman, who could not be expected 
to understand the faction-fighting, the feeling was 
justifiable. But it was Cromwell's business to 
know what the parties had been doing^ As a 
matter of fact, the wrong of the original Ulster 
massacre, which itself avenged prior wrongs by 
the invaders, had been overlaid by countless other 
massacres committed by English and Irish alike, 
during the intervening years ; and the very men 
against whom this original wrong had been com* 

151 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

mitted were now fighting side by side with the 
wrong-doers, against Cromwell and the Puritans. 
Moreover, for some time the Parliamentarians had 
been in close alliance with these same wrong-doers 
against the moderate Irish, who were not impli- 
cated in the massacres in question, and against 
the Royalist Protestants, some of whom had suf- 
fered from the massacres and others of whom had 
helped avenge them. The troops against whom 
Cromwell was to fight were in part Protestant 
and English, these being mixed in with the 
Catholics and Irish ; and at the moment the chief 
Royalist leaders in Ireland included quite as 
many English, Scotch, and Irish Protestants, as 
they did Irish Catholics. 

Cromwell recked but little of nice distinctions 
between the different stripes of Royalists and 
Catholics when, in August, 1649, he landed in 
Dublin, the only place in Ireland, save Derry, 
which still held out for the Parliament. He 
brought with him the pick of his troops and soon 
had at Dublin some 10,000 foot and 5,000 horse. 
They were excellently disciplined ; they included 
the Ironsides, the veterans of the New Model 
— grim Puritans for the most part, inflamed with 
the most bitter hatred against Catholics, Irish, and 
Royalists. They had been welded into one for- 
midable mass by Cromwell's rigid discipline, and 

152 



THE IRISH AND SCOTCH WARS 

yet were all aflame with religious and political 
enthusiasm. There could not be gathered in all 
Ireland an army capable of meeting in the open 
field that iron soldiery, under such a leader as 
Cromwell ; and this the Irish chiefs well knew. 

Cromwell, therefore, had to deal with a numer- 
ous and individually brave but badly disciplined 
enemy, formidable in guerilla warfare, because 
theirs was a wild country of mountain and bog, 
and resolute in defence of their walled towns, but 
not otherwise to be feared by such troops as the 
Ironsides. His first care was to put an end to the 
plundering and licentiousness which had hitherto 
marked the English no less than the Irish armies. 
He completely stopped outrages upon the peas- 
antry and non-combatants generally, besides pro- 
tecting all who lived quietly in their homes. 

In September he marched against Drogheda, 
into which Orrnond had thrown 3,000 picked 
men, largely English, under Sir Arthur Aston. 
Cromwell had with him some 8,000 men when 
he sat down to attack it. He brought up a siege- 
train, beating back the sallies of the garrison with 
ease, and meanwhile maintaining his strict disci- 
pline, and putting down pillage by the summary 
process of hanging the plunderers. 

When his batteries were ready he summoned 
the Governor to surrender, but the summons was 

153 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

refused. For two days the guns kept up their 
fire, and then in the afternoon the assault was de- 
livered. The defenders met the stormers in the 
breaches ; the fight was hot and stiff; the English 
were once repulsed, but came forward again and 
carried the breach only to be once more driven 
out by a fierce rally. 

When Cromwell saw his men driven down the 
breach, he placed himself at the head of the re- 
serve, and in person led it with the rallied men of 
the broken regiments, back to the breach. This 
time the stormers would not be denied. They 
carried the breach, the church — which was 
strongly held by the Irish — and finally the pali- 
saded intrenchments of Mill Mount, in which Sir 
Arthur Aston had taken refuge. The horse fol- 
lowed close behind the foot, and speedily cleared 
the streets of the hostile cavalry and infantry. 
The victorious Puritans pressed on and a terrible 
slaughter followed. Cromwell forbade them to 
spare any that were in arms in the town, and they 
put to the sword over 2,000 men. Nearly 1,000 
were killed in the great Church of St. Peter's. 
" All the priests found," says Cromwell, " were 
knocked on the head promiscuously but two, 
both of whom were killed next day." Sir Ar- 
thur Aston, Verney, the son of the King's stand- 
ard-bearer at Edgehill, and all the officers were 

154 



THE IRISH AND SCOTCH WARS 

put to the sword. Two towers held out until 
next day, when they submitted ; their officers 
were " knocked on the head," says Cromwell. 
One tower fought hard; there every tenth man 
of the soldiers was killed; the rest, and all the 
soldiers in the other tower, were shipped to the 
white slavery of the Barbadoes. Of the assail- 
ants, about a hundred were slain and several hun- 
dred wounded. 

Said Cromwell : " We put to the sword the 
whole number of the defendants. . . . This 
hath been a marvellous great mercy. I wish that 
all honest hearts may give glory of this to God 
alone, to whom indeed the praise of this mercy 
belongs. ... I am persuaded that this is a 
righteous judgment of God upon these barbarous 
wretches who have imbrued their hands in so 
much innocent blood, and that it will tend to 
prevent the effusion of blood for the future, which 
are the satisfactory grounds to such actions, which 
otherwise cannot but work remorse and regret. 
The officers and soldiers of this garrison were 
the flower of their army." 

Cromwell's defenders say simply that he acted 
from a fervent belief in the righteousness of what 
he was doing, and, further, that the terrible ven- 
geance he took here and at Wexford upon all 
who withstood him in arms cowed the Irish and 

155 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

prevented further resistance. Neither defence is 
tenable. If on the ground of their sincerity the 
deeds of Cromwell and his soldiers at Drogheda 
and Wexford can be defended, then we cannot 
refuse the same defence to Philip and Alva and 
their soldiers in the Netherlands. Of course, we 
must always remember that under Cromwell 
there was no burning at the stake, no dreadful 
torture in cold blood ; and, therefore, at his worst, 
he rises in degree above Philip and Alva. But 
in kind, his deeds in Ireland were the same as 
theirs in the Netherlands ; and though the Puri- 
tan soldiers were guiltless of the hideous licen- 
tiousness shown by the Spaniards, or by the 
armies of Tilly and Wallenstein, yet the merci- 
/less butchery of the entire garrisons and of all the 
/ priests — accompanied by the slaughter of other 
non-combatants, in at least some cases — leave 
Drogheda and Wexford as black and terrible 
stains on Cromwell's character. Nor is there any 
justification for them on the ground that they put 
a stop to resistance. The war lingered on for 
two or three years in spite of them ; and in any 
event the outcome was inevitable. It does not 
seem to have been hastened in any way by this 
display of savagery. There had been many such 
butcheries during the war, before Cromwell came 
to Ireland, without in any way hastening the 

156 



THE IRISH AND SCOTCH WARS 

end. Cromwell and his lieutenants put down the 
insurrection and established order because they 
gained such sweeping victories, not because Crom- 
well made merciless use of his first victories. It 
was the righting of the Puritan troops in the bat- 
tle itself which won, and not their ferocity after 
the battle ; and it was Cromwell who not merely 
gave free rein to this ferocity, but inspired it. 
Seemingly quarter would have been freely given 
had it not been for his commands. Neither in 
morals nor in policy were these slaughters justifi- 
able. Moreover, it must be remembered that the 
men slaughtered were entirely guiltless of the 
original massacres in Ulster. 

Immediately after Drogheda, Cromwell sent 
forces to Dundalk, which was held by the Irish, 
and to Trim, which was held by the Scotch ; but 
the garrisons deserted both places at the approach 
of the Cromwellians. In October, Cromwell him- 
self advanced on Wexford and stormed the town. 
Very little resistance was made, but some 2,000 
of the defenders were put to the sword. This 
time the soldiers needed no order with reference 
to refusing quarter ; they acted of their own ac- 
cord, and many of the townspeople suffered with 
the garrison. Practically, the town was depopu- 
lated, not one in twenty of the inhabitants being 
left. 

157 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

Then Cromwell moved to Ross. In spite of 
the slaughter which he made in the towns he 
stormed, he exercised such strict discipline over 
his army in the field, and paid with such rigid 
punctuality for all supplies which the country 
people brought in, that they flocked to him as 
they feared to do to their own armies, and in con- 
sequence his troops were better fed and able to 
march more rapidly than was the case with the 
Irish. He soon took Ross, allowing the garrison 
to march out with the honors of war, and gave 
protection to the inhabitants. When asked to 
guarantee freedom of religion he responded : 
" For that which you mention concerning liberty 
of conscience, I meddle not with any man's con- 
science. But, if by liberty of conscience, you 
mean liberty to exercise the mass, I judge it best 
to use plain dealing, and to let you know, where 
the Parliament of England have power, that will 
not be allowed of." 

Three months after he landed, Cromwell had 
possession of almost all the eastern coast. One 
of the remarkable features of his campaign had 
been the way in which he had used the army and 
the fleet in combination. He used his admirals 
just as he had used his generals and colonels, and 
they played a very important part in the opera- 
tions against Wexford and Ross, and in securing 

i 5 3 




St. Lawrence's Gate, Drogheda. 



THE IRISH AND SCOTCH WARS 

the surrender of both. When he moved away 
from the coast his task was very difficult; there 
were no roads, the country had been harried into 
a wilderness, and was studded with castles and 
fortified towns, every one held by an Irish garri- 
son. Ormond and O'Neil were in the field with 
a more numerous force than his ; and though they 
dared not fight a pitched battle, they threatened 
his detachments. The service was very wearing, 
and in December Cromwell went into winter 
quarters, the weather being bad, and his men 
decimated by fever. The triumphs won by his 
terrible soldiership rendered the conquest of the 
whole island only a question of time. 

Having now a little leisure, Cromwell pub- 
lished, for the benefit of the Irish, a " Declara- 
tion," as an answer to a polemic issued in form of 
a manifesto at Kilkenny by the high Irish eccle- 
siastics. In this Declaration, which is very curi- 
ous reading, he exhorted the Irish to submit, and 
answered at great length the arguments of their 
religious leaders, with all the zeal, ingenuity, and 
acrimony of an eager theological disputant, and 
with an evident and burning sincerity to which 
many theological disputants do not attain. The 
religious side of his campaigns was always very 
strong in his mind, and no Puritan preacher more 
dearly loved setting forth the justification of his 

159 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

religious views, or answering the arguments of his 
religious opponents, whether Catholics or Cove- 
nanters. 

So far as Puritanism was based upon a literal 
following of the example set in the Old Testa- 
ment, it had a very dark, as well as a very exalted 
side. To take the inhuman butcheries of the 
early Jews as grateful to Jehovah, and therefore 
as justification for similar conduct by Christians, 
could lead only to deeds of horror. When Crom- 
well wrote from Cork, justifying the Puritan zeal 
which he admitted could not be justified by " rea- 
son if called before a jury," he appealed to the 
case of Phineas, who was held to have done the 
work of the Lord, because he thrust through the 
belly with his javelin the wretched Midianitish 
woman. No such plea can be admitted on be- 
half of peoples who have passed the stage of 
mere barbarism. 

Drogheda and Wexford could not be excused 
by pointing out that the priests of the Jews of old 
had held it grateful to the Lord to kill without 
mercy the miserable women and children of the 
tribes whom the Israelites drove from the land. 
Such a position was in accord with the mediaeval 
side of Cromwell's character, but was utterly out 
of touch with his thoroughly modern belief in 
justice and freedom for all men. Oueer contra- 

1 60 



THE IRISH AND SCOTCH WARS 

dictions appear in the above-mentioned " Declara- 
tion," written, as he phrased it, " For the unde- 
ceiving of deluded and seduced people." He 
showed that he was a leader in the modern move- 
ment for social, political, and religious liberty, 
when he wrote : " Arbitrary power men begin to 
grow weary of, in Kings and Churchmen; their 
juggle between them mutually to uphold civil 
and ecclesiastical tyranny begins to be transpar- 
ent. Some have cast off both ; and hope by the 
Grace of God to keep so. Others are at it." 
But when he came to reconcile his own declara- 
tions for religious liberty with his previous refusal 
to permit the celebration of the mass, he was 
forced into a purely technical justification of his 
position. He announced that he would punish, 
with all the severity of the law, priests " seducing 
the people, or, by any overt act, violating the 
la ,vs established," but added : " As for the people 
what thoughts they have in matters of religion in 
their own breasts, I cannot reach ; but shall think 
it my duty, if they walk honestly and peaceably, 
not to cause them in the least to suffer for the 
same." In other words, Catholics could believe 
what they wished, but were not allowed to pro- 
fess their beliefs in the form that they desired, or 
to have their teachers among them. To our 
American eyes such a position is so wholly un- 

161 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

tenable, so shocking to the moral sense, that it 
requires an effort to remember that it was in ad- 
vance of the position taken in the next century 
by the English toward the Irish through their 
Penal Laws, and of the position taken in France 
toward the Protestants during the latter part of 
the reign of Louis XIV. and all the reign of 
Louis XV., while of course it was infinitely be- 
yond the theory upon which the temporal and 
spiritual authorities of Spain acted. 

While the Irish campaign was at its height, the 
Scotch, who had declared for Charles II., made 
ready for war, and the English Parliament de- 
manded Cromwell's return. For some months, 
however, he remained in Ireland, capturing Kil- 
kenny and various other towns and castles and 
constantly extending the area of English sway, 
driving the Irish westward. His campaign was 
a model for all military operations undertaken in 
a difficult country, covered by a network of for- 
tified places, and held by masses of guerillas or 
irregular levies, backed by the whole population. 
After Clonmel was taken he handed over the com- 
mand to I re ton; the heavy work had been done, 
and what remained to do was tedious and harass- 
ing rather than formidable, while the Scotch busi- 
ness could no longer wait. 

In May, 1650, Cromwell landed in England, 
162 



THE IRISH AND SCOTCH WARS 

took his seat in the House of Commons, and was 
made Captain-General and Commander-in-Chief 
of the forces, Fairfax having refused to take part 
in any offensive campaign against the Covenant- 
ers. It is recorded that when Cromwell entered 
London, greeted by surging multitudes, someone 
called his attention to the way the people turned 
out to do him honor for his triumph ; whereupon 
he dryly answered that it was nothing to the way 
they would turn out to see him hanged. 

The refusal of Fairfax to march against the 
Scotch left Cromwell the only hope of the Com- 
monwealth. It cannot too often be repeated that, 
whether in the end Cromwell's ambitions did or 
did not obscure the high principles with which 
they certainly blended, yet he rose to supreme 
power less by his own volition than by the irresist- 
ible march of events, and because he was " a man 
of the mighty days, and equal to the days." In 
this world, in the long run, the job must necessa- 
rily fall to the man who both can and will do it 
when it must be done, even though he does it 
roughly or imperfectly. It is well enough to de- 
plore and to strive against the conditions which 
make it necessary to do the job ; but when once 
face to face with it, the man who fails either in 
power or will, the man who is half-hearted, reluc- 
tant, or incompetent, must give way to the actual 

163 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

doer, and he must not complain because the doer 
gets the credit and reward. President Buchanan 
utterly disbelieved in the right of secession, but 
he also felt doubts as to its being constitutional or 
possible to " coerce a sovereign state," and there- 
fore he and those who thought like him had to 
give place to men who felt no such doubts. It 
may be the highest duty to oppose a war before 
it is brought on, but once the country is at war, 
the man who fails to support it with all possible 
heartiness comes perilously near being a traitor, 
and his conduct can only be justified on grounds 
which in time of peace would justify a revolution. 
The whole strength of the English Commonwealth 
was in the Independents. Royalists, Episcopa- 
lians, Presbyterians, extreme Levellers, were all 
against it. When the Scotch declared for Charles 
II. as King, not only of Scotland but of England, 
they rendered it necessary that either England or 
Scotland should be conquered. Fairfax declared 
that he was willing to defend the English against 
the Scotch attack, but not to attack Scotland. 
The position was puerile ; a fact which should be 
borne in mind by the excellent persons who at the 
present day believe that a nation can be somehow 
armed for defence without being armed for attack. 
No fight was ever yet won by parrying alone ; hard 
hitting is the best parry ; the offensive is the only 

164 




Cromwell Leading the Assault on Drogheda. 

er the batteries had made a breach in the walls an attempt was made to take the town by storm. Crom- 
eing his men driven back, placed himself at the head uf the column, and, rallying the troops, soon had 
j possession of the place. His soldiers were ordered to give no quarter to those carrying arms, and it is 
more than two thousand of the defenders were put to the sword. 



THE IRISH AND SCOTCH WARS 

sure defensive. To refuse to attack the Scotch 
was merely to give them a great initial advantage 
in the inevitable struggle. Cromwell was far too 
clear-sighted and resolute to suffer from over- 
sentimental scruples in the matter. Accordingly 
he undertook the task ; did it with his accustomed 
thoroughness; and from that moment became, 
not merely the first man in the Kingdom, but 
a man without a second or a third, without a rival 
of any kind. 

Charles had landed in Scotland and been pro- 
claimed King, but was forced not merely to take 
the Covenant but to make degrading professions 
of abandonment and renunciation of his father's 
acts and principles. He was, after all, to be a 
King only in name, if the dominant party in Scot- 
land could have its way. Dour as Dopper Boers, 
the Covenanters were determined that the govern- 
ment should be, though in form royal, in essence 
a democratic theocracy, where the men of the 
strictest Calvinistic sect should all have their say 
in an administration marked by the most bitter in- 
tolerance of every religious belief which differed 
by even a shade from their own. To get real 
religious liberty in those days one had to go to 
Rhode Island or Maryland ; but at least the Eng- 
lish Puritans were, in this respect, far in advance 
of the men against whom they were pitted. 

165 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

There was also a Royalist party in Scotland, 
which had scant sympathy with the Covenanters* 
but was only allowed to exist at all by their suf- 
ferance. When at this time Montrose landed to 
help the King, the Presbyterian friends of the 
King promptly overcame and slew him. The 
Kirk was supreme, and in the army which it gath- 
ered to meet Cromwell it made zeal for the Cov- 
enant the all-important requirement for a com- 
mission. It would not even permit places of 
command to be given to the officers who had 
marched with Hamilton's army. The Royalists 
around the King complained bitterly that the 
commissions were most apt to go to sons of min- 
isters, and if not, then to men whose godliness 
and religious enthusiasm were but poor substitutes 
for training and skill in arms. Cromwell's sol- 
diers possessed all of these qualities. Devotion to 
country or to religion adds immensely to the effi- 
ciency of a soldier, but is a broken reed by itself. 
Officers whose only qualifications are religious or 
patriotic zeal, are better than officers who seek 
service to gratify their vanity, or who are appointed 
through political favor ; but until they have really 
learned their business, and unless they are eager 
and able to learn it, this is all that can be said of 
them. 

Cromwell marched north to the walls of Edin- 

166 



THE IRISH AND SCOTCH WARS 

burgh, where David Leslie lay with the Covenant- 
ing army of the Kirk. Leslie had fought under 
Gustavus Adolphus, and beside Cromwell at 
Marston Moor, where the Scotch insisted that 
they had saved the Cromwellians from defeat. 
Now the two sides were decisively to test the 
question of supremacy. But the contest was really 
utterly unequal. Cromwell had a veteran army, 
one which had been kept under arms for years. 
Leslie had an army which had been brought to- 
gether for this particular war. He was, therefore, 
under the terrible disadvantage which rests on any 
man who, with raw volunteers, confronts well- 
trained, well-led veterans. There were under him 
plenty of officers and men with previous military 
experience — though, as the Royalist above quoted 
remarked, too many of the officers were " sancti- 
fied creatures who hardly ever saw or heard of 
any sword but that of the Spirit " — yet the regi- 
ments were all new, and the men had no regi- 
mental pride or confidence, no knowledge of how 
to act together, no trust in one another or in their 
commanders ; while Cromwell's regiments were 
old, and the recruits in each at once took their 
tone from the veterans around them. 

Although Leslie's force was twice that of Crom- 
well's, he knew his trade too well to risk a stricken 
field on equal terms, when the soldiers were of 

;67 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

such unequal quality. He accordingly intrenched 
in a strong position covering Edinburgh, and there 
awaited the English attack. Cromwell was a born 
fighter, always anxious for the trial of the sword; 
a man who habitually took castles and walled 
towns by storm, himself at need heading the 
stormers, and who won his pitched battles by the 
shock of his terrible cavalry, which he often led 
in person, and which invariably ruined any foe 
whom he had overthrown. He now advanced 
with too much confidence and found himself in a 
very ugly situation ; his men sickening rapidly, 
while Leslie's army increased in numbers and dis- 
cipline. Like every great commander, Cromwell 
realized that the end of all manoeuvring is to fight 
— that the end of strategy should be the crushing 
overthrow in battle of the enemy's forces. On 
this occasion his eagerness made him forget his 
caution ; and all his masterly skill was needed to 
extricate him from the position into which he had 
been plunged by his own overbearing courage and 
the wariness of his opponent. 

For some time he lay before Edinburgh, unable 
to get Leslie to fight, and of course unwilling to 
attack him in his intrenchments. Sickness and 
lack of provisions finally forced him to retreat. 
He believed that this would draw Leslie out of 
his works, and his belief was justified by the event. 

168 



THE IRISH AND SCOTCH WARS 

The English now mustered some 11,000 men; 
the Scotch, 22,000. Leslie was still cautious about 
righting, but the ministers of the Kirk, who were 
with him in great numbers, hurried him on. He 
followed Cromwell to Dunbar, where he cut off 
the English retreat to England. But his army was 
on the hills and was suffering from the weather. 
He thought that the discouraged English were 
about to embark on their ships. The ministers 
fiercely urged him to destroy the " sectaries " 
whom they so hated, and in the afternoon of De- 
cember 2d he crowded down toward the lower 
ground, near the sea. 

Cromwell saw with stern joy that at last the 
Scotch had given him the longed-for chance, and 
true to his instincts he at once decided to attack, 
instead of waiting to be attacked. Leslie's troops 
had come down the steep slopes, and at their foot 
were crowded together so that their freedom of 
movement was much impaired. Cromwell be- 
lieved that if their right wing were smashed, the 
left could not come in time to its support. He 
pointed this out to Lambert, who commanded his 
horse, and to Monk, the saturnine tobacco-chew- 
ing colonel, now a devoted and trusted Cromwel- 
lian. Both agreed with Cromwell, and before 
dawn the English army was formed for the on- 
slaught, the officers and troopers praying and ex- 

169 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

horting loudly. Their cry was : " The Lord of 
Hosts ! " that of their Presbyterian foes : " The 
Covenant ! " It was a strange fight, this between 
the Puritan and the Covenanter, whose likeness 
in the intensity of their religious zeal and in the 
great features of their creeds but embittered their 
antagonism over the smaller points upon which 
they differed. 

Day dawned, while driving gusts of rain swept 
across the field, and the soldiers on both sides 
stood motionless. Then the trumpets sounded 
the charge, and the English horse, followed by 
the English foot, spurred against the stubborn 
Scottish infantry of Leslie's right wing. The 
masses of Scotch cavalry, with their lancers at the 
head, fell on the English horse — disordered by the 
contest with the infantry — and pushed them back 
into the brook ; but they rallied in a moment, as 
the reserves came up, and horse and foot again 
rushed forward to the attack. At this moment 
the sun flamed red over the North Sea, and Crom- 
well shouted aloud, with stern exultation : " Let 
God arise and let His enemies be scattered," and 
a few moments later — " They run ! I profess they 
run ! " for now the Scottish army broke in wild 
confusion, though one brigade of foot held their 
ground, fighting the English infantry at push of 
pike and butt-end of musket, until a troop of the 

170 



THE IRISH AND SCOTCH WARS 

victorious horse charged from one end to the 
other, through and through them. 

Cromwell was as terrible in pursuit as in battle. 
He never left a victory half-won, and always fol- 
lowed the fleeing foe, as Sheridan followed the 
Confederates before Appomattox. The English 
horse pressed the fleeing Scotch, and their defeat 
became the wildest rout, their cavalry riding 
through their infantry. Cromwell himself rallied 
and re-formed his troopers, who sang as a song of 
praise the hundred and seventeenth Psalm; and 
then he again loosed his squadrons on the foe. 
The fight had not lasted an hour, and Cromwell's 
victory cost him very little ; but of the Scotch, 
3,000 were put to the sword, chiefly in the pur- 
suit, and 10,000 were captured, with 30 guns and 
200 colors. Leslie escaped by the speed of his 
horse. Never had Cromwell won a greater tri- 
umph. Like Jackson in his Valley Campaigns, 
though he was greatly outnumbered, he struck 
the foe at the decisive point with the numbers all 
in his own favor, and by taking advantage of 
their error he ruined them at a blow. Like most 
great generals, Cromwell's strategy was simple, 
and in the last resort consisted in forcing the 
enemy to fight on terms that rendered it possible 
thoroughly to defeat him ; and like all great gen- 
erals, he had an eye which enabled him to take 

171 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

advantage of the fleeting opportunities which 
occur in almost every battle, but which if not 
instantly grasped vanish forever. 

The ruin of the Kirk brought to the front the 
Cavaliers, who still surrounded Charles and were 
resolute to continue the fight. Both before and 
after Dunbar, Cromwell carried on a very curious 
series of theological disputations with the leaders 
of the Kirk party. The letters and addresses of 
the two sides remind one of the times when 
Byzantine Emperors exchanged obscure theolog- 
ical taunts with the factions of the Circus. Yet 
this correspondence reveals no little of the secret 
of Cromwell's power ; of his intense religious en- 
thusiasm — which was both a strength and a weak- 
ness — his longing for orderly liberty, and his half- 
stifled aspirations for religious freedom. 

He was on sound ground in his controversy 
with the Scottish Kirk. He put the argument for 
religious freedom well when he wrote to the 
Governor of Edinburgh Castle, concerning his 
ecclesiastical opponents : * " They assume to be 
the infallible expositors of the Covenant (and of 
the Scriptures), counting a different sense and 
judgment from theirs Breach of Covenant and 
Heresy — no marvel they judge of others so author- 
itatively and severely. But we have not so learned 

*Slightly condensed. 
172 







a— 

j= c 
o o 



u au 



•*- </i o 






THE IRISH AND SCOTCH WARS 

Christ. We look at Ministers as helpers of, not 
Lords over, God's people. I appeal to their con- 
sciences whether any ' man ' trying their doctrines 
and dissenting shall not incur the censure of 
Sectary ? And what is this but to deny Chris- 
tians their liberty and assume the Infallible Chair? 
What doth (the Pope) do more than this *? " 

There is profitable study for many people of 
to-day in the following : " Your pretended fear 
lest error should step in is like the man who would 
keep all the wine out of the country, lest men 
should be drunk. It will be found an unjust and 
unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural 
liberty upon a supposition he may abuse it. 
When he doth abuse it, judge. If a man speak 
foolishly, ye suffer him gladly, because ye are wise. 
Stop such a man's mouth by sound words which 
cannot be gainsayed. If he speak to the disturb- 
ance of the public peace, let the civil magistrate 
punish him." 

After Dunbar, Cromwell could afford to in- 
dulge in such disputations, for, as he said : " The 
Kirk had done their do." All that remained was 
to deal with the Cavaliers. There is, by the way, 
a delightful touch of the " Trust in the Lord, and 
keep your powder dry ! " type in one of his 
letters of this time, when he desired the Com- 
mander at Newcastle to ship him three or four 

173 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

score masons, " for we expect that God will sud- 
denly put some places into our hands which we 
shall have occasion to fortify." 

The fate of the prisoners taken at Dunbar was 
dreadful. War had not learned any of its modern 
mercifulness. Cromwell was in this, as in other 
respects, ahead, and not behind, the times. He 
released half of the prisoners — for the most part 
half-starved, sick, and wounded — and sent the 
rest under convoy southward, praying that hu- 
manity might be exercised toward them ; but no 
care was taken of them, and four-fifths died from 
starvation and pestilence. 

Meanwhile, a new Scotch army was assembling 
at Stirling, consisting for the most part of the 
Lowland Cavaliers, with their retainers, and the 
Royalist chiefs from the Highlands, with their 
clansmen. Before acting against them, Cromwell 
broke up the remaining Kirk forces, put down 
the moss-troopers and plunderers, and secured the 
surrender of Edinburgh. Winter came on, and 
operations ceased during the severe weather. 

In the spring of 1651, he resumed his work, 
and by the end of summer he had the Royalists 
in such plight that it was evident that their only 
chance was to abide the hazard of a great effort. 
Early in August Charles led his army across the 
border into England, to see if he could not retrieve 

174 



THE IRISH AND SCOTCH WARS 

his cause there, while Cromwell was in Scotland; 
but Cromwell himself promptly followed him, 
while Cromwell's lieutenants in England opposed 
and hampered the march of the Royalists. There 
was need of resolute action, for Charles had the 
best Scotch army that had yet been gathered to- 
gether. There was no general rising of the Eng- 
lish to join him, but, when he reached Worcester, 
the town received him with open arms. This was 
the end of his successes. Cromwell came up, 
and after careful preparation, delivered his attack, 
on September 3d. Charles had only some 15,000 
men; Cromwell, nearly 30,000, half of whom, 
however, were the militia of the neighboring 
counties, who were not to be compared either 
with Cromwell's own veterans, or with their 
Royalist opponents. The fight was fierce, Crom- 
well's left wing gradually driving back the enemy, 
in spite of stubborn resistance; while, on his 
right, the Cavaliers and Highlanders themselves 
vigorously attacked the troops to which they were 
opposed. It was " as stiff a contest for four or 
five hours as ever I have seen," wrote Cromwell 
that evening ; but at last he overthrew his foes, 
and, following them with his usual vigor, frightful 
carnage ensued. The victory was overwhelming. 
Charles, himself escaped after various remarkable 
adventures, but all the nobles and generals of note 

175 



L 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

were killed or taken. Nearly 11,000 men were 
captured, and practically all the remainder were 
slain. 

This was, as Cromwell said, " the crowning 
mercy." It was the last fight of the Civil War ; 
the last time that Cromwell had to lead an army 
in the field. From now till his death there never 
appeared in England a foe it was necessary for 
him to meet in person. 



The Sword used by Cromwell in his Irish Campaign. 




176 



V 
THE COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE 

AFTER the battle of Worcester, the au- 
thority of the Commonwealth was supreme 
throughout the British Islands. This authority 
as yet reposed, wholly in form, largely in sub- 
stance, with the remnant of the Long Parliament. 
This remnant, derisively called the " rump," dif- 
fered as widely in power and capacity from the 
Parliament led by Pym and Hampden, as the 
Continental Congress that saw the outgoing of 
the Revolutionary War differed from that which 
saw its incoming. Defections and purgings, 
exclusions first of whole-hearted Episcopalian 
Royalists and then of half-hearted Presbyterian 
Royalists, had reduced it to being but the repre- 
sentative of a faction. It had submitted to the 
supremacy of the army by submitting to the ex- 
clusion of those members to whom the army 
objected. Then it had worked for some time 
hand in hand with the army; but, now that war 
was over, the Parliamentary representatives or 
the Independents feared more and more the 

177 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

supremacy of the military, or Cromwellian, wing 
of their party. It was the army, and not the Par- 
liament, that had won the fight ; that had killed 
one king, and driven another, his son, into exile ; 
that had subdued Scotland and Ireland, and 
stamped out the last vestige of Royalist resistance 
in England. Yet it was the Parliament, and not 
the army, which in theory was to fall heir to the 
royal power. 

Moreover, Parliament, thanks to its past his- 
tory, had become as little as the army the legal 
embodiment of the power of England ; and what 
was more important, there was even less general 
acceptance of it as the proper representative of 
power, than there was general acceptance of the 
army. The army, even where hated, was feared 
and respected ; the Parliament was beginning to 
excite no emotion save an angry contempt. 
There were men of honor, of note, and of ability 
still left in the Parliament ; but its vital force was 
dying. 

Conscious of its own weakness before the peo- 
ple, the Parliament was most reluctant to face a 
dissolution ; most eager to devise means by which 
its rule could be perpetuated. The army, no less 
conscious of the hostility felt for it by the Parlia- 
ment, was just as determined that there should be 
a dissolution and an election of a new Parliament. 

178 



THE COMMONWEALTH 

In the approaching conflict the army had an im- 
mense advantage, for, while the Parliament was 
losing its grip upon the Independents, without in 
any way attracting strength from the Royalists, 
the great mass of the Independents still firmly 
regarded Cromwell as their especial champion. 

This was the case, not only in England, but 
elsewhere. One of Cromwell's letters of about 
this time is to the New England clergyman, John 
Cotton, in answer to one which showed the keen 
interest taken in Cromwell's triumph by his fel- 
low-Puritans, who, across the Atlantic, had begun 
the upbuilding of what is now the giant republic 
of the New World. The letter is marked by the 
continuous use of scriptural phrases and protesta- 
tions of humility, so ostentatious and overstrained 
as to convey an uncomfortable feeling of hypoc- 
risy ; yet, without doubt, there was a base of gen- 
uineness for these expressions. Beyond question, 
Cromwell felt that he was doing the Lord's work ; 
and was sustained through the tremendous hours 
of labor and peril by the sense of battling for jus- 
tice on this earth, and in accordance with the Eter- 
hal Will of Heaven. ^\ 

In dealing with Cfbmwell and the Puritan 
Revolution it must ever be kept in mind, before 
judging too harshly the actors, that the era saw 
the overlapping of two systems, both in religion 

179 



I 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

and in politics ; and many incongruities resulted. 
It was the first great stride toward the practica 
achievement of civil rights and individual liberty 
as we now understand them. It was also the en 
in which the old theological theory of the all- 
importance of dogma came into sharp conflict 
with the now healthily general religious belief in 
the superior importance of conduct. Of course, 
as is invariably the case in real life, the issues 
were not sharply drawn at all points, and at some 
they were wholly obscured by the strong passions 
and ambitions which belong, not to any particu- 
lar age, but to all time. 

After Worcester, when Cromwell had returned 
to London, he one day summoned a conference, 
at Speaker Lenthall's house, of the leaders of the 
Parliamentary army to decide how the national ) 
destiny was to be settled. He hoped that they %* 
would be able to form a policy among them- 
selves; but the hope proved fruitless. Some of 
the members wished an absolute republic ; some 
wished a setting-up of what we would now call a 
limited monarchy, with one of the late king's sons 
recalled and put at the head. 

Nothing came of the conference, and Parlia- 
ment went its way. It had at last waked to the 
fact that it must do something positive in the 
way of reform, or else that its days were num- r 

1 80 



THE COMMONWEALTH 

bered. It began with great reluctance to make a 
j pretence of preparing for its own dissolution, and 
I strove to accomplish some kind of reform in the 
daws. At that time the law of England had been 
for generations little more than a mass of ingen- 
ious technicalities, and the Court of Chancery had 
become the synonym for a system of interminable 
delay, which worked as much injustice as out- 
right spoliation. (_ Even now there is a tendency 
in the law toward the deification of technicalities, 
the substitution of the letter for the spirit ; a ten- 
dency which can only be offset by a Bench, and, 
indeed, a Bar, possessing both courage and com- 
mon-sense. \ At that time, the condition of affairs 
was much worse, and the best men in England 
shared the popular feeling of extreme dislike for 
lawyers, as men whose trade was not to secure 
justice, but to weave a great web of technicalities 
which completely defeated justice. However, 
reform in the methods of legal procedure proved 
as difficult then as it ever has proved, and all that 
even Cromwell could do was to make a begin- 
ning in the right direction. The Rump was 
quite unable so much as to make this beginning. 
The Parliament obtained a momentary respite 
by creating a diversion in foreign affairs, and 
bringing on a war with the Dutch. Throughout 
the first half of the seventeenth century, the 

181 



I 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

Dutch were the leading mercantile and naval 
power of Europe, surpassing the English in trade 
and in colonial possessions. Unfortunately for 
them, their home authorities did not believe in 
preparedness for war; and the crushing defeats 
which the boldness and skill of their sailors had 
enabled them to inflict on the Spaniards, lulled 
them into the unwholesome faith — shared at 
times by great modern mercantile communities — 
that, by simple desire for peace, they could avert 
war ; and that if war came, they could trust to 
their riches and reserve strength to win. Accord- 
ingly, in time of peace they laid up their warships 
and never built a fighting navy in advance, trust- 
ing to the use of armed merchant-vessels and im- 
provised war-craft to meet the need of the hour. 
England, on the contrary, had a large regular 
navy, the ships being superior in size and arma- 
ment to the Dutch, and the personnel of the navy 
being better disciplined, although none of the 
English Admirals, save Blake, ranked with 
Tromp and De Ruyter. 

The cause of the quarrel was the Navigation 
Act, passed by England for the express purpose 
of building up the English commercial marine at 
the expense of the Dutch. The latter were then 
the world's carriers on the ocean. They derived 
an immense profit from carrying the goods of 

182 



THE COMMONWEALTH 

other countries, in their own bottoms, from these 
other countries to England. The Navigation 
Act forbade this, allowing only English bottoms 
to be used to carry goods to England, unless the 
goods were carried in the ships of the country 
from which they came. This is the kind of 
measure especially condemned by the laissez-faire 
school of economists, and its good results in this 
case have always puzzled them; while, on the 
other hand, its success under one set of conditions 
has been often ignorantly held to justify its appli- 
cation under entirely different conditions. In 
other words, like the system of protective tariffs, 
it is one of those economic measures which may 
or may not be useful to a country, according to 
changes in time and circumstances. In the Crom- 
wellian period it benefited the English as much as 
it hurt the Dutch, and laid the foundation of Eng- 
lish commercial supremacy. Another cause of 
war was the insistance by the English upon their 
right to have their flag saluted by the Dutch as 
well as by other foreign powers. 

There followed a bloody and obstinate struggle 
for the mastery of the seas. Battle after battle 
was fought between the Dutch and English fleets. 
The latter were commanded by Blake, Monk, 
Dean, and other officers, who had won distinction 
ashore — for the process of differentiation between 

183 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

military service on land and on the sea was far 
from complete. The fighting was most deter- 
mined, and the Dutch won two or three victories ; 
but they were defeated again and again, until 
finally beaten into submission. The war was one 
undertaken purely from motives of commercial 
greed, against the nation which, among all the 
nations of continental Europe, stood closest to 
England in religious belief, in form of govern- 
ment, in social ideas, and in its system of politi- 
cal liberty. Cromwell hated the thought of the 
two free Protestant powers battling one another 
to exhaustion, while every ecclesiastical and po- 
litical tyranny looked on with a grin of approba- 
tion. He wished the alliance, not the enmity, of 
Holland ; and though, when the war was once on, 
he and those he represented refused in any way to 
embarrass their own government, yet they were 
anxious for peace. The Parliament, on the other 
hand, hailed the rise of the Navy under Blake as 
a counterpoise to the power of the army under 
Cromwell. One effect of this Dutch War was to 
postpone the question of the dissolution of Parlia- 
ment ; another, to cause increased taxation, which 
was met by levying on the estates of the Royalist 
Delinquents, so-called. 

By March, 1653, the Dutch were evidently 
beaten, and peace was in sight ; but before peace 

184 







Admiral Robert Blake. 

From the portrait at Wadham College, Oxford. 
By permission ot the Master of Wadham. 



THE COMMONWEALTH 

came, there was an end of the Rump Parliament. 
The discontent in the army had steadily in- 
creased. They wished a thorough reform in 
governmental methods ; and with the character- 
istic Puritan habit of thought, wished especially 
to guarantee the safety of the " Godly interests " 
by a complete new election. On the other hand, 
the Parliament was scheming how to yield in 
name only, and not in fact, and had hit on the 
device of passing a bill which should continue 
all the members of the existing Parliament with- 
out reelection ; and, moreover, should constitute 
them a general committee, with full power to 
pass upon the qualifications of any new members 
elected. This, of course, amounted to nothing, 
and the army would not accept it. 

Many conferences of the leaders of the two 
sides were held at Cromwell's house, the last on 
the evening of April 19, 1653, y oun g Sir Harry 
Vane, formerly one of Cromwell's close friends, 
being among the number of the Parliamentary 
leaders. Cromwell, on behalf of his party, 
warned them that their bill could not be ac- 
cepted or submitted to, and the Parliamentary 
leaders finally agreed that it should not be 
brought up again in the House, until after fur- 
ther conference. But they either did not or 
could not keep their agreement. The members 

185 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

of the House were obstinately resolved to keep 
their places — many of them from corrupt mo- 
tives, for they had undoubtedly made much 
money out of their positions, through the taxing 
of delinquents and otherwise. In short, they 
wished to perpetuate their government, to have 
England ruled by a little self-perpetuating oli- 
garchy. Next morning, April 20th, Parliament 
met and the leaders began to hurry the Bill 
through the House. 

They reckoned without their host. Cromwell, 
sitting in his reception-room, and waiting the 
return of the conferees of last evening, learned 
what was going on, and just as he was clad, " in 
plain black clothes and gray worsted stockings," 
followed by a few officers and twenty or thirty 
stark musketeers, he walked down to the House. 
There he sat and listened for some time to the 
debate on the Bill, once beckoning over Harri- 
son, the Republican general, his devoted follower. 
When the question was put as to whether the 
Bill should pass, he rose and broke in with one 
of his characteristic speeches. First, he enumer- 
ated the good that had been done by Parliament, 
and then began to tell them of their injustice, 
their heed to their own self-interests, their delay 
to do right. One among his eager listeners 
called him to order, but no appeal to Parlia- 

186 




Cromwell Dissolving the Long Parliament. 



ing commanded the soldiers to clear th*. h-,11 u u- i< 

to be locked, he depa^TcJ &&&&}%* Z^sToA SgiSg^ *" ^ 



THE COMMONWEALTH 

mentary forms could save the doomed House. 
" Come, come ! " answered Oliver, " we have had 
enough of this ; I will put an end to your prat- 
ing ! " With that he clapped on his hat, stamped 
on the floor with his feet, and began to rate the 
Commons as if they were disobedient school-boys. 
'* It is not fit that you should sit here any longer • 
you have sat too long for any good that you have 
been doing lately; you shall now give place to 
better men ! " And Harrison called in the mus- 
keteers. Oliver then continued, enumerating the 
sins of the members, some of whom were drunk- 
ards, some lewd livers, some corrupt and unjust. 
The house was on its feet as he lifted the mace, 
saying : " What shall we do with this bauble *? 
Take it away ! " and gave it to a musketeer ; and 
then, turning toward the Speaker : " Fetch him 
down ! " and fetched down he was. Gloomily 
the members went out, while Cromwell taunted 
Sir Harry Vane with breaking his promise, end- 
ing with : " The Lord deliver me from thee, Sir 
Harry Vane ! " So ended the Long Parliament 
and, asserted Oliver, " We did not hear a dog 
bark at their going." 

Tomes have been written to prove whether 
Oliver was right or wrong in what he did at this 
time ; but the Rump Parliament had no claim to 
be, either in law or fact, the representative of the 

187 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

English people, or of any part of them that really 
counted. There was no justification for its con- 
tinuance, and no good whatever could come from 
permitting it to exist longer. Its actions, and es- 
pecially its obstinate determination to perpetuate 
its own rule, without warrant in law, without the 
even higher and more perilous warrant of justice 
and national need, rendered it necessary that it 
should be dissolved. At the time Cromwell, with- 
out doubt, intended that it should be replaced by 
a genuinely representative body; and if he had 
possessed the temper, the self-control, the far- 
sighted patriotism, and the personal disinterested- 
ness which would have enabled him to carry out 
his intentions in good faith, without thinking of 
his own interests, he would have rendered an in- 
estimable public service and might have advanced 
by generations the movement for English liberty. 
In other words, if Cromwell had been a Wash- 
ington, the Puritan Revolution might have been 
made permanent. His early acts, after the disso- 
lution of the Long Parliament, showed a sincere 
desire on his part, and on the part of those whose 
leader he was, to provide some form of govern- 
ment which should secure justice and order, with- 
out leaving everything to the will of one maa 
His first effort was to summon an assembly of the 
Puritan notables. In the interim he appointed a 



THE COMMONWEALTH 

new Council of State, with himself, as Captain- 
General, at its head. The fleet, the army, and 
the Independents generally, all hastened to pledge 
him their support, and England undoubtedly ac- 
quiesced in his action, being chiefly anxious to 
see whether or not the new Assembly could for- 
mulate a permanent scheme of government. If 
the Assembly and Cromwell together could have 
done this — that is, could have done work like that 
of the great Convention which promulgated the 
Constitution of the United States — all would have 
gone well. 

In criticising Cromwell, however, we must re- 
member that generally in such cases an even 
greater share of blame must attach to the nation 
than to the man. Free government is only for 
nations that deserve it ; and they lose all right to 
it by licentiousness, no less than by servility. If 
a nation cannot govern itself, it makes compara- 
tively little difference whether its inability springs 
from a slavish and craven distrust of its own 
powers, or from sheer incapacity on the part of its 
citizens to exercise self-control and to act to- 
gether. Self-governing freemen must have the 
power to accept necessary compromises, to make 
necessary concessions, each sacrificing somewhat 
of prejudice, and even of principle, and every 
group must show the necessary subordination of 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

its particular interests to the interests of the com- 
munity as a whole. When the people will not 
or cannot work together ; when they permit 
groups of extremists to decline to accept anything 
that does not coincide with their own extreme 
views ; or when they let power slip from their 
hands through sheer supine indifference ; then 
they have themselves chiefly to blame if the power 
is grasped by stronger hands. Yet, while keeping 
all this in mind, it must not be forgotten that a 
great and patriotic leader may, if the people have 
any capacity for self-government whatever, help 
them upwards along their hard path by his wise 
leadership, his wise yielding to even what he does 
not like, and his wise refusal to consider his own 
selfish interests. A people thoroughly unfit for 
self-government, as were the French at the end of 
the eighteenth century, are the natural prey of a 
conscienceless tyrant like Napoleon. A people 
like the Americans of the same generation can be 
led along the path of liberty and order by a Wash- 
ington. The English people, in the middle of 
the seventeenth century, might have been helped 
to entire self-government by Cromwell, but were 
not sufficiently advanced politically to keep him 
from making himself their absolute master if 
he proved morally unequal to rising to the 
Washington level ; though doubtless they would 

190 




Oliver Cromwell. 

From the painting at Althorp by Robert Walker. 
By permission of Earl Spencer, K.C. 



THE COMMONWEALTH 

not have tolerated a man of the Napoleonic 
type. 

The Assembly gathered in July, 1 653. It was 
called the "Barebones" Parliament in derision, 
because one of its members — a Puritan leather- 
merchant — was named " Praise-God Barbon." 
The members were men of high character, of in- 
tense religious fervor, and, for the most part, of 
good social standing. They were actuated by 
sincere conviction, but they had no political train- 
ing whatever. They were not accustomed to 
make government move ; they were theorists, 
rather than doers. Religious fervor, or mere fer- 
vor for excellence in the abstract, is a great main- 
spring for good work in politics as in war, but it 
is no substitute for training, in either civil or mil- 
itary life ; and if not accompanied by sound com- 
mon-sense and a spirit of broad tolerance, it may 
do as much damage as any other mighty force 
which is unregulated. 

On July 4th, Cromwell opened the Assembly 
with a long speech, which, toward the end, be- 
came a true Puritan sermon ; a speech which had 
in it a very high note of religion and morality, 
but which showed a growing tendency in Oliver's 
mind to appeal from the judgment of men to 
what he esteemed the judgment of Heaven, 
whenever he thought men were wrong. Now, it 

191 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

is very essential that a man should have in him 
the capacity to defy his fellows if he thinks that 
they are doing the work of the Devil, and not the 
work of the Lord ; but it is even more essential 
for him to remember that he must be most cau- 
tious about mistaking his own views for those of 
the Lord ; and also to remember that as the 
Lord's work is accomplished through human in- 
struments, and as these can only be used to ad- 
vantage by remembering that they are human, 
and, therefore, imperfect, in the long run a man 
can do nothing of permanence, save by joining 
his zeal to sound judgment, moderation, and the 
desire to accomplish practical results. 

The Assembly of Puritan notables was no 
more competent to initiate successful self-gov- 
ernment in England than a Congress of Aboli- 
tionists, in i860, would have been competent to 
govern the United States. They did not lack in 
lofty devotion to their ideals, but their methods 
were impractical. Cromwell professed to have 
resigned his power into their hands, and they 
went at their work in a spirit of high religious 
enthusiasm. The " instrument," under which 
theyfcpere summoned, had provided that their 
authority should be transferred to another assem- 
bly elected under their directions ; in other words, 
they were to form a constitutional Convention. 

192 



THE COMMONWEALTH 

They undertook a host of reforms, largely in the 
right direction. Among other things, they pro- 
posed the abolition of the Court of Chancery, the 
establishment of civil marriage, the abolition of 
tithes, and of lay patronage. The clergy and the 
lawyers were cast into a frenzy of alarm over these 
proposals, and the landed proprietors became very 
uneasy lest some of their own unjust vested in- 
terests should suffer. 

Now, all this was most excellent in point of 
moral purpose, just as it would have been abso- 
lutely right, from the abstract ethical standpoint, 
if the Constitution of 1789, or the Republican 
Convention of i860, had declared for the aboli- 
tion of slavery in all the States. Of course, if the 
Constitution had made such a declaration, it 
would never have been adopted, and the English- 
speaking people of North America would have 
plunged into a condition of anarchy like that of 
the after-time South American Republics ; while, 
if the Republican platform of i860 had taken 
such a position, Lincoln would not have been 
elected, no war for the Union would have been 
waged, and instead of slavery being abolished, it 
would have been perpetuated in at least one of 
the confederacies into which the country would 
have been split. The Barebones Parliament was 
too far ahead of the times, too indifferent to re- 

193 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

suits, and too impatient of the limitations and 
prejudices of its neighbors. Its members were 
reformers, who lost sight of the fact that a reform 
must be practicable in order to make it of value. 
They excited the utmost suspicion in the com- 
munity at large, and Cromwell, whose mind was 
in many respects very conservative, and who was 
an administrator rather than a constructive states- 
man, shared the general uneasiness. He shrank 
from the acts of the Barebones Parliament just as 
he had shrunk from the levelling tendencies of 
the Republicans. The leaders of both had gone 
too far in the direction of speculative reform. 
Cromwell erred on the other side, and did not go 
far enough. It is just as necessary for the practi- 
cal man to remember that his practical qualities 
are useless, or worse than useless, unless he joins 
with them that spirit of striving after better things 
which marks the reformer, as it is for this same 
reformer to remember that he cannot give effec- 
tive expression to his desire for a higher life save 
by following rigidly practical ways. 

Cromwell, in his opening address to the Con- 
vention, had been carried away by his religious 
enthusiasm, and in a burst of strange, rugged elo- 
quence had bid his hearers remember that they 
must " hold themselves accountable to God 
only ; " must own their call to be from Him, and 

194 



THE COMMONWEALTH 

must strive to bring about God's rule upon earth. 
When they took his words literally he became 
heartily uneasy, as did the great bulk of English- 
men ; for, of course, there were limitless interpre- 
tations to be put as to the proper way of being 
" owned " by God, and Oliver was not in the 
least inclined to accept the interpretation adopted 
by the Barebones Parliament. He wished ad- 
ministrative reform in Church and State, but he 
had little sympathy with what he deemed revolu- 
tionary theories, whether good or bad. 

The Convention gradually grew conscious that 
it had no support in popular sympathy, and dis- 
solved of its own motion, after having named a 
Council of State, which drew up a remarkable 
Constitution under the name of the " Instrument 
of Government." This Instrument was adopted 
by Cromwell and the Council of Officers, and un- 
der it a new Parliament was convened. Even 
yet, Cromwell, and at least the majority of the 
army, shrank from abandoning every effort at 
constitutional rule in favor of the naked power of 
the sword. Nevertheless, Cromwell had even less 
fondness for the rule of a Parliament elected un- 
der any conditions he was able to devise. He 
realized that the majority of the nation was against 
him, and dreaded lest it might take steps toward 
the rehabilitation of the monarchy. In his ad- 

195 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

dress to the Barebones Convention he had dwelt 
with special emphasis upon the fact that a Par- 
liament elected merely by the majority might not 
be nearly so suitable for doing the Lord's work as 
such an assembly as that he had convened. 

In short, all his qualities, both good and bad, 
tended to render the forms and the narrowly lim- 
ited powers of constitutional government irksome 
to him. His strength, his intensity of conviction, 
his delight in exercising powers for what he con- 
ceived to be good ends; his dislike of speculative 
reforms and his inability to appreciate the neces- 
sity of theories to a practical man who wishes to 
do good work; his hatred of both King and 
oligarchy, while he utterly distrusted a popular 
majority ; his tendency to insist upon the superi- 
ority of the moral law, as he saw it, to the laws of 
mankind round about him — all these tendencies 
worked together to unfit him for the task of help- 
ing a liberty-loving people on the road toward 
freedom. 

The Instrument of Government was a very re- 
markable document. It was a written constitu- 
tion. Cromwell and his soldiers desired, like 
Washington and his fellow-members of the Con- 
stitutional Convention which framed the govern- 
ment of the United States, to have the funda- 
mental law of the land put in shape where it 

196 



THE COMMONWEALTH 

would be accessible to all men, and where its 
terms would not be open to doubt. Such a 
course was absolutely necessary if a free govern- 
ment, in the modern sense, was to be established 
on radically new lines. It has not been ren- 
dered necessary in the free England of to-day, 
because, very fortunately, England has been able 
to reach her freedom by evolution, not revolu- 
tion. 

The Instrument of Government confided the 
executive power to a Lord Protector and Coun- f ' 
cil ; Cromwell was named as the first Protector. 
The legislative power was assigned without re- 
striction to a Parliament elected by constituencies 
formed on a new and equitable franchise, there 
being a sweeping redistribution of seats. Parlia- 
ment could pass a Bill over the Protector's veto, 
and was to meet once in three years, for at least 
five months; but it had little control over the 
executive, save that with it rested the initiative in 
filling vacancies in the Council. The Protector 
was allotted a certain fixed sum, which made him 
largely independent of the Parliament's action. 
Nevertheless, the Protector was under real con- 
stitutional control. Religious liberty was secured 
for all congregations which did not admit " pa- 
pacy or prelacy," the Episcopalians and Roman 
Catholics being excluded from this right just as 

197 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

they were excluded from the right of voting, 
rather as enemies to the Commonwealth than 
because of their mere religious beliefs. They 
were regarded as what would now be called, in 
the political terminology of continental Europe, 
" irreconcilables " ; and the mass and the Prayer- 
Book were both prohibited. Until the first Par- 
liament met, which was to be on the anniversary 
of the Battle of Dunbar, on September 3, 1654, 
the Protector and Council were to issue ordi- 
nances with the force of law. 

The Constitution thus had very many points of 
difference from that under which the United 
States grew into a great nation. Yet it ranks 
with it, rather than with the system of Parliamen- 
tary supremacy which was ultimately adopted in 
England. It was, of course, less popular, in the 
true sense, than the government of either the 
United States or Great Britain at the present mo- 
ment. Oliver, later on, insisted on what he called 
the " Four Fundamentals," which answered to 
what we now style Constitutional Rights. His 
position was strictly in accord with the Ameri- 
can, as opposed to the English, theory of embody- 
ing, by preference in some written document, 
propositions which neither the law-making body 
nor the executive could modify. It was not to 
be expected that he should hit on the device of a 

198 



THE COMMONWEALTH 

Supreme Court to keep guard over these propo- 
sitions. 

On December 16, 1653, Oliver was installed 
at Westminster, as Lord Protector. The judges, 
the army, the fleet, the mass of Independents, and 
the bulk of well-to-do citizens, concurred in the 
new departure ; for the Protectorship gave stability, 
and the election of the new Parliament the assur- 
ance of liberty. There were plenty of opponents, 
however. The Royalists were implacable. The 
exiled House of Stuart, with a baseness of which 
their great opponent was entirely incapable, sought 
to compass his assassination. They could in no 
other way hope to reach the man whom they 
dared not look in the face on the field of battle. 
Plot after plot was formed to kill the Protector, 
but the plotters were invariably discovered and 
brought to justice ; while every attempt at open 
insurrection was stamped out with the utmost 
ease. To the Royalist malcontents were added 
the extreme fanatics, the ultra-reformers of every 
type — religious, political, and social. These were, 
at the time, more dangerous than the Royalists, 
for they numbered supporters in the army, includ- 
ing some who had been prominent friends of 
Cromwell up to this time, like General Harrison. 
It was necessary, therefore, to arrest some of 
the most turbulent agitators, including preachers, 

1 99 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

and to deprive certain officers of their commis- 
sions. 

The Protector and his Council acted wisely 
in their ordinances, redressing in practical shape 
many grievances. The Barebones Parliament had 
striven to abolish the Court of Chancery outright, 
and to hand its power over to the judges of the 
Common Law, which would merely have aggra- 
vated the existing hardships by checking the 
growth of the principle of equity. Oliver acted 
more conservatively : in fact, altogether too con- 
servatively ; but still he did something. In the 
Church government, also, a good deal was accom- 
plished by the appointment of commissioners of 
good character to supervise the ministers, while 
allowing each to organize his congregation on any 
lines he chose — Presbyterian, Congregationalist, or 
Baptist. Dissenters were permitted to form sepa- 
rate congregations — " gathered churches " in the 
phrase of the day — if they so desired. Of course, 
this was not by any means complete religious 
toleration, but it was a nearer approach to it than 
any government in Europe, with the possible ex- 
ception of the Dutch, had yet sanctioned, and it 
was so far in advance of the general spirit of the 
time that the new Parliament — a really represent- 
ative body — took sharp exception to it. In 
point of religious toleration Oliver went just as 

200 



the; commonwealth 

far as the people of his day would let him — far- 
ther than any other ruler of the century was will- 
ing to go, save only Henry IV. of France — and 
Henry IV. really believed in nothing, and so could 
easily be tolerant, while Cromwell's zealous faith 
was part of the very marrow of his being. 

Cromwell also concluded peace with the Dutch. 
Before the Long Parliament was dissolved it had 
become evident that the navy would ultimately 
conquer this peace for England ; but the stubborn 
Dutch had to undergo several additional defeats 
before they would come to terms. Blake, the 
great admiral, had no particular admiration for 
Cromwell, but finally threw in his lot with him 
on the ground that the fleet had no concern with 
politics, and should limit itself strictly to the effort 
" to keep foreigners from fooling us." Monk was 
the admiral most in view in the later stages of the 
Dutch War. When it was over, he was sent 
back to keep the Highlands in order, which he 
and his fellow-Cromwellians did, with a thorough- 
ness not afterward approached for a century. 
Scotland was now definitely united to England. 

The new Parliament consisted of 400 members 
from England, 30 from Scotland, and 30 from 
Ireland. They were elected by a general suffrage, 
based on the possession of property to the value 
^200. The Parliament thus gathered was rep- 

301 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

resentative in a very wide sense. Nearly two 
hundred years were to elapse before any other as 
truly representative was to sit in England. The 
classes whose inclusion would certainly have made 
trouble were excluded ; and, while the suffrage 
had been extended, and gross inequalities of rep- 
resentation abolished, there had been no such rev- 
olutionary action as suddenly to introduce masses 
of men unaccustomed to the exercise of self-gov- 
ernment. Indeed, the house had arbitrarily erased 
from its roll of membership the names of a few 
ultra- Republicans. It was chiefly Cromwell's own 
fault that he failed to get along with this Parlia- 
ment, and, therefore, failed to put the government 
on a permanent basis of orderly liberty. 

At the beginning, everything seemed to go 
well. He opened the Parliament with one of 
those noteworthy speeches of which some seven- 
teen have been preserved ; speeches in the proper 
sense, unquestionably better when spoken to listen- 
ers than when read by critics, but instinct with the 
rough power of the speaker, permeated with relig- 
ious fervor and sincere striving after the right ; and 
even where the reasoning is most wrong-headed, 
containing phrases and sentiments which show the 
keenest insight into the needs of the moment, and 
the needs of eternity as well. The sentences are 
often very involved, it being quite evident that 



THE COMMONWEALTH 

the speeches were not written out, not even delib- 
erately thought out, in advance ; for Oliver, even 
as he spoke, kept dropping and rejecting such of 
his half-finished utterances as did not give suffi- 
ciently accurate or vehement expression to his 
thought. Yet they contain abundance of the lof- 
tiest thought, expressed in language which merely 
gains strength from its rude, vigorous homeliness. 
For generations after Cromwell's death, the pol- 
ished cynics and dull pedants, who abhorred and 
misunderstood him, spoke of his utterances with 
mixed ridicule and wrath : Hume hazarding the 
opinion that if his speeches, letters, and writings, 
were gathered together they would form " one of 
the most nonsensical collections the world had 
ever seen." We could far better afford to lose 
every line Hume ever wrote than the speeches of 
Cromwell. 

In his opening address he pointed out that 
what the nation most needed was healing and 
settling; and in a spirit of thoroughly English 
conservatism, denounced any merely revolutionary 
doctrines which would do away with the security 
of property, or would give the tenant " as liberal 
a fortune " as the landlord. In religious matters 
also, he condemned those who could do nothing 
but cry : " Overturn ! Overturn ! ! Overturn ! ! ! " 
and together with his praise of what had been 

203 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

done, and of the body to which he spoke, he min- 
gled much advice, remarking : " I hope you will 
not be unwilling to hear a little again of the sharp 
as well as of the sweet." He exhorted them to 
go to work in sober earnest ; to remedy in practi- 
cal shape any wrongs, and to join with him in 
working for good government. Unfortunately, 
he made the mental reservation that he should be 
himself the ultimate judge of what good govern- 
ment was. 

Equally unfortunately, there was in the House 
a body of vehement Republicans who at once de- 
nied the legal existence of either Council or Pro- 
tector, on the ground that the Long Parliament 
had never been dissolved. Of course such an ar- 
gument was self-destructive, as it told equally 
against the legality of the new Parliament in which 
they sat. Parliament contented itself with recog- 
nizing the Instrument of Government as only of 
provisional validity, and proceeded to discuss it, 
clause by clause, as the groundwork of a new Con- 
stitution. It was unanimously agreed that Crom- 
well should retain his power for five years, but 
Parliament showed by its actions that it did not 
intend to leave him in a position of absolute su- 
premacy. Instantly Oliver interfered, as arbitra- 
rily as any hereditary King might have done. 

He first appeared before the Parliament, and 
204 



THE COMMONWEALTH 

in an exceedingly able speech announced his 
willingness to accept a Parliamentary constitu- 
tion, provided that it contained four funda- 
mentals not to be overturned by law. The fun- 
damentals were, first, that the country was to be 
governed by a single person, by a single execu- 
tive, and a Parliament; second, that Parliaments 
were not to make themselves perpetual; third, 
that liberty of conscience should be respected; 
fourth, that the Protector and Parliament should 
have joint power over the militia. 

All four propositions were sound. The first 
two were agreed to at once, and the third also, 
though with some reluctance, the Parliament 
being less liberal than the Protector in religious 
matters. Over the control of the soldiers there 
was irreconcilable difference. 

Cromwell was not content with arguments. 
He would not permit any member to enter the 
House without signing an engagement not to 
alter the government as it had been settled; 
that is, every member had to subscribe to the 
joint government of the Protector and the Par- 
liament. A hundred members refused to sign. 
Three-fourths of the House did sign, and went 
on with their work. 

Until the assembling of this Parliament, every 
step that Oliver had taken could be thoroughly 

205 



OLIVER CROMWELL 






justified. He had not played the part of a 
usurper. He had been a zealous patriot, work- 
ing in the interests of the people ; and he had 
only broken up the Long Parliament when the 
Long Parliament had itself become an utterly 
unrepresentative body. He had then shown his 
good faith by promptly summoning a genuinely 
representative body. It is possible to defend 
him even for excluding the hundred members 
who declined to subscribe to his theory of the 
fundamentals of government. But it is not pos- 
sible to excuse him for what he now did. Par- 
liament, as it was left after the Extremists had 
been expelled, stood as the only elective body 
which it was possible to gather in England that 
could in any sense be called representative, and 
yet agree to work with Cromwell. Had Crom- 
well not become cursed with the love of power; 
had he not acquired a dictatorial habit of mind, 
and the fatal incapacity to acknowledge that 
there might be righteousness in other methods 
than his own, he could certainly have avoided a 
break with this Parliament. His splitting with 
it was absolutely needless. It agreed to confirm 
his powers for five years, and, as it happened, at 
the end of that time he was dead. Even had he 
lived there could be no possible excuse for refus- 
ing such a lease of power, on the ground that it 

206 



vW>J >Y 







The Great Hall, Hampton Court. 

la this room the state dinners were given under the Protectorate. 



THE COMMONWEALTH 

was too short ; for it was amply long enough to 
allow him to settle whatever was necessary to 
settle. 

Cromwell, and later his apologists, insisted that, 
by delay and by refusing to grant supplies until 
their grievances were considered, the Parliament 
was encouraging the spirit of revolt. In reality 
the spirit of re vole was tenfold increased, not by 
the Parliament's action, but by Cromwell's, in 
seizing arbitrary power. If he had shown a 
tenth of the forbearance that Washington 
showed in dealing with the various Continental 
Congresses, he would have been readily granted 
far more power than ever Washington was 
given. He could easily have settled affairs on a 
constitutional basis, which would have given him 
all the power he had any right to ask; for his 
difficulties in this particular crisis were nothing 
like so great as those which Washington sur- 
mounted. The plea that the safety of the people 
and of the cause of righteousness depended upon 
his unchecked control, is a plea always made in 
such cases, and generally, as in this particular 
case, without any basis in fact. The need was 
just the other way. 

Contrast Cromwell's conduct with that of Lin- 
coln, just before his second election as President. 
There was a time in the summer of 1864 when it 

207 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

looked as if the Democrats would win, and elect 
McClellan. At that time it was infinitely more 
essential to the salvation of the Union that Lin- 
coln should be continued in power, than it was to 
the salvation of the Commonwealth, in 1654, that 
Cromwell should be continued in power. Lin- 
coln would have been far more excusable than 
Cromwell if he had insisted upon keeping con- 
trol. Yet such a thought never entered Lin- 
coln's head. He prepared to abide in good faith 
the decision of the people, and one of the most 
touching incidents of his life is the quiet and 
noble sincerity with which he made preparations, 
if McClellan was elected, to advise with him 
and help him in every way, and to use his own 
power, during the interval between McClellan's 
election and inauguration, in such a manner as 
would redound most to the advantage of the lat- 
ter, and would increase, as far as possible, the 
chance for the preservation of the Union. It was 
at this time of Cromwell's life that, at the parting 
of the ways, he chose the wrong way. Great 
man though he was, and far though the good 
that he did out-balanced the evil, yet he lost the 
right to stand with men like Washington and 
Lincoln of modern times, and with the very, 
very few who, like Timoleon, in some measure 
approached their standard in ancient times. 

20S 



THE COMMONWEALTH 

As the Parliament continued in session, the 
attitude of the Protector changed from sullen 
to fierce hostility. It was entitled to sit five 
months. By a quibble he construed this to 
mean five lunar months. On January 22, 1655, 
he dissolved it, after rating it in a long and angry 
speech. With its dissolution it became evident 
to the great mass of true liberty-lovers that all 
hope of real freedom was at an end, and the 
forces that told for the restoration of the King 
were increased tenfold in strength. Neverthe- 
less, some of the purest and most ardent lovers of 
liberty, like Milton, still clung despairingly to 
the Protector. They recognized that, with all 
his faults, and in spite of his determination to 
rule in arbitrary fashion, he yet intended to se- 
cure peace, justice, and good government, and, 
alike in power and in moral grandeur, towered 
above his only possible alternative, Charles II., 
as a giant towers above a pigmy. 




209 



VI 

PERSONAL RULE 

WHEN Cromwell, in January, 1655", dis- 
missed the first Protectorate Parliament, 
he left himself nothing to do but to establish his 
own personal rule ; in other words, he became a 
tyrant. Of course the word cannot be used in 
the sense we use it in describing Ivan the Ter- 
rible, or Agathokles. As each country must, 
sooner or later, obtain exactly that measure of 
political freedom to which it is entitled, so, when 
it falls under a tyranny, the tyranny must be 
strictly conditioned by the character of the peo- 
ple. Cromwell ruled over Englishmen, not Rus- 
sians or Greeks, and no Englishman would have 
tolerated for twenty-four hours what was groan- 
ingly borne by Muscovites, who had lost every 
vestige of manhood beneath the Tartar yoke, or 
by Syracusans, in the days of the rapid decadence 
of the Hellenistic world. Cromwell's govern- 
ment was a tyranny because it was based on his 
own personal rule, his personal decision as to 
what taxes should be levied, what ordinances 



PERSONAL RULE 

issued, what police measures decreed and carried 
out, what foreign policy adopted or rejected. 
He was influenced very much by public opinion, 
when public opinion found definite expression in 
the action of a body of legislators or of an assem- 
bly of officers; but even in such cases he was 
only influenced, not controlled. In other words, 
he had gone back to the theory of government 
professed by the man he had executed, and by 
that man's predecessors. There was, however, 
the tremendous and far-reaching difference, that, 
whereas the Stuart kings clung to absolute power 
for the sake of rewarding favorites and of carry- 
ing out policies that were hostile to the honor 
and interest of England, Cromwell seized it with 
the sincere purpose of exalting the moral law at 
home and increasing the honor of England's 
name abroad. Moreover, he was in fact what 
no Stuart was, in anything but name : a " king 
among men," and his mighty strength enabled 
him, at least partially, to realize his purpose. 

Cromwell doubtless persuaded himself that he 
was endeavoring to secure what, would now be 
called a constitutional government : one which, 
in his own words, "should avoid alike the ex- 
tremes of monarchy and democracy." He was 
desirous of paying heed to the wishes of those 
whom he esteemed the wisest and most honest 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

among the people. He had somewhat of that 
gift for personal popularity which was so marked 
a feature of Queen Elizabeth — seemingly the 
only sovereign whom he admired, among all his 
predecessors. To the last he kept stirring 
vaguely for a constitutional system ; and he sin- 
cerely disliked merely arbitrary rule. 

But by the time he became Lord Protector he 
was too impatient of difference of opinion, too 
doggedly convinced of his own righteousness and 
wisdom, to be really fit to carry on a free gov- 
ernment. He had sought to introduce the reign 
of the saints; but when, in the Barebones Parlia- 
ment, he gathered together the very men whom 
he deemed their arch-representatives, it was only 
to find, as was of course inevitable, that he and 
they could not agree as to the method of realizing 
the reign of the saints in this very material world. 
Then he sought to secure a government by the 
representatives of the people : only to find that he 
got along even less well with them than with the 
saints. In short, while he had kept his nobility 
of purpose, his whole character had grown less 
and less such as to fit him to found a government 
of the kind toward which his race was dimly 
striving. 

He made varied experiments for the control of 
England. After the first Protectorate Parliament 

212 



PERSONAL RULE 

had been abolished, he established the govern- 
ment of the major-generals, or in other words, 
purely military rule ; dividing England into a 
dozen districts, with a major-general over each as 
the ultimate authority. The prime function of 
the major-generals was to keep order, and they 
crushed under their iron heels every spark of 
Royalist insurrection, or of Leveller and Anabap- 
tist uprising. They interfered in civil matters 
also, and were especially required to see to the 
rigid observance of the Sabbath, and to suppress 
all cock-fighting, horse-racing, and kindred sports, 
as well as to shut up doubtful ale-houses. There 
certainly never was a more extraordinary despot- 
ism than this; the despotism of a man who 
sought power, not to gratify himself, or those 
belonging to him, in any of the methods to which 
all other tyrants have been prone ; but to estab- 
lish the reign of the Lord, as he saw it. Here 
was a tyrant who used the overwhelming strength 
of his military force to forbid what he considered 
profane amusements, and to enforce on one day 
of the week a system of conduct which was old- 
Jewish in character. Of course the fact that he 
meant well, and that his motives were high, did 
not make it any the easier for the people with 
whose pleasures and prejudices he thus irritat- 
ingly interfered. 

213 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

The Puritan passion for regulating, not merely 
the religion, but the morals and manners of their 
neighbors, especially in the matter of Sunday ob- 
servance and of pastimes generally, was peculiarly 
exasperating to men of a more easy-going nature. 
Even nowadays, the effort for practical reform in 
American city government is rendered immeasur- 
ably more difficult by the fact that a considerable 
number of the best citizens are prone to devote 
their utmost energies, not to striving for the fun- 
damentals of social morality, civic honesty, and 
good government, but, in accordance with their 
own theory of propriety of conduct, to preventing 
other men from pursuing what these latter regard 
as innocent pleasures ; while, on the other hand, a 
large number of good citizens, in their irritation 
at any interference with what they feel to be 
legitimate pastimes, welcome the grossest corrup- 
tion and misrule rather than submit to what they 
call " Puritanism." When this happens, before 
our eyes, we need not wonder that in Cromwell's 
day the determination of the Puritans to put down 
ale-houses and prohibit every type of Sunday pas- 
time, irritated large bodies of the people to the 
point of longing for the restoration of the Stuarts, 
no matter what might be the accompanying evils 
of corruption and tyranny. 

The experiment of governing by the major- 
214 



PERSONAL RULE 

generals provoked such mutterings of discontent 
that it had to be abandoned. Another parliament 
was summoned, and out of this Oliver arbitrarily 
kept any man whom he did not think ought to 
come in. It was anything but a radical body, 
and after declaring against the rule of the major- 
generals, it offered Oliver the kingship, an offer to 
which the army objected, and which Oliver, there- 
fore, refused ; but even with this subservient as- 
sembly Oliver could not get along, and it finally 
shared the fate of its predecessor. The objection 
of the army to the kingship, was partly due to the 
presence of so many Republican zealots in its 
ranks ; but probably the main reason for the ob- 
jection was that the army, more or less consciously, 
realized that its own overmastering importance in 
the commonwealth would vanish as soon as the 
man it had made supreme by the sword was 
changed into a constitutional king. 

One by one almost all of Oliver's old comrades 
and adherents left him, and he was driven to put 
his own kinsfolk into as many of the higher 
places, both in the State and the army, as possi- 
ble ; less from nepotism than from the need of 
having in important positions men who would do 
his will, without question. Eventually he had to 
abandon most of the ideas of political liberty 
which he had originally championed, and, fol- 

215 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

lowing the path which the Long Parliament had 
already trod, he finally established a rigid censor- 
ship of the press. 

Yet, though it must be freely admitted that in 
its later years the government of Cromwell was 
in form and substance a tyranny, it must be no 
less freely acknowledged that he used with wis- 
dom and grandeur the power he had usurped. 
The faults he committed were the faults of the 
age, rather than special to himself, while his sin- 
cerity and honesty were peculiarly his own. 

He fairly carried out his pledge of healing and 
settling, and he put through a long series of ad- 
ministrative reforms. In England and Wales his 
internal administration undoubtedly told for what 
was of moral and material advantage to the coun- 
try; and if there was heavy taxation, at least it 
produced visible and tangible results, which was 
never the case under the Stuarts, before or after 
him. Yet his rule could not but produce discon- 
tent. In the first place, the Royalists were not 
well treated. In that age the beaten party was 
expected to pay heavily for its lack of success, 
both in purse and in body ; and it was not to be 
expected that the victorious Puritans should show 
toward their defeated foes the generosity displayed 
by Grant and his fellow-victors in the American 
Civil War. In the American Revolution, the 

216 




Sir William Waller. 

From the Portrait by Sir Peter Lely at Goodwood. 
By permission ot the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, K.C.. 



PERSONAL RULE 

Tories were at first followed with much the same 
vindictiveness that the Royalists were followed 
after King Charles had been brought to the block. 
But Washington and all the leading American 
statesmen disapproved of this, and after the first 
heat of passion was over the American Royalists 
were allowed precisely the same civil and political 
rights as their neighbors. On the contrary, in 
England, under the Commonwealth, the Royalists 
were kept disfranchised, and taxation was arranged 
so as always to fall with crushing weight upon 
them, thus insuring their permanent alienation. 
As regards the rest of the people, while there was 
considerable interference with political and relig- 
ious liberty, it was probably only what the times 
demanded, and was certainly much less than oc- 
curred in almost any other country. Episcopa- 
lians were denied the use of the Prayer-Book, and, 
like the Catholics, were given liberty of con- 
science only on condition that they should not 
practise their faith in public. Irritating though 
this was, and wrong though it was, it fell infin- 
itely short of what had been done to Protestants, 
under Oueen Mary, by the temporarily victorious 
Catholics, or to Puritans and Catholics under 
Queen Elizabeth, or of what was to be done to 
the Covenanters of Scotland, under the victorious 
Episcopalians ; but such considerations would not 

217 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

have altered the discontent, even had the discon- 
tented kept them in mind. When provocation is 
sufficient to drive a man into revolution, it mat- 
ters little in practical politics how much beyond 
this point it is carried. The breaking-point is 
reached sooner in some nations than in others ; 
but in all strong nations persecution will cause 
revolt long before it takes the terrible form given 
it by Spaniards and Turks ; and, once the war is 
on, the men who revolt hate any persecutor so 
much that there is scant room for intensification 
of the feeling. Moreover, instead of the Crom- 
wellian government growing more, it grew less 
tolerant of Catholicism and Episcopacy as time 
went on. 

The people at large were peculiarly irritated 
by what were merely the defects inevitably inci- 
dent to the good features of Puritanism in that 
age. When faith is very strong and belief very 
sincere, men must possess great wisdom, broad 
charity, and the ability to learn by experience, or 
else they will certainly try to make others live up 
to their own standards. This would be bad 
enough, even were the standards absolutely right ; 
and it is necessarily worse in practice than in the- 
ory, inasmuch as mixed with the right there is 
invariably an element of what is wrong or foolish. 
The extreme exponents and apologists of any 

218 



PERSONAL RULE 

fervent creed can always justify themselves, in the 
realm of pure logic, for insisting that all the world 
shall be made to accept and act up to their stand- 
ards, and that they must necessarily strive to 
bring this about, if they really believe what they 
profess to believe. Of course, in practice, the 
answer is that there are hundreds of different 
creeds, or shades of creeds, all of which are 
believed in with equal devoutness by their fol- 
lowers, and therefore in a workaday government 
it is necessary to insist that none shall interfere 
with any other. Where people are as far ad- 
vanced in practical good-sense and in true relig- 
ious toleration as in the United States to-day, the 
great majority of each creed gradually grows to 
accept this position as axiomatic, and the smaller 
minority is kept in check without effort, both by 
law and by public opinion. 

In Cromwell's time, such law did not obtain in 
any land, and public opinion was not ripe for it. 
He was far in advance of his fellow-Englishmen. 
He described their attitude perfectly, and indeed 
the attitude of all Europe, when he remarked : 
" Every sect saith, Oh, give me liberty ! but, 
given it and to spare, he will not yield it to any- 
one else. Liberty of conscience is a natural 
right, and he that would have it ought to give it. 
. . . I desire it from my heart ; I have prayed 

219 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

for it ; I have watched for the day to see union 
and right understanding between the Godly peo- 
ple — Scots, English, Jews, Gentiles, Presbyter- 
ians, Independents, Anabaptists, and all." 

The whole principle of religious toleration is 
summed up in these brief sentences. In his 
higher and better moments, and far more than 
most men of his generation, Cromwell tried to 
live up to them. When Mazarin, the great 
French cardinal, in responding to Cromwell's call 
for toleration of the Vaudois, asked toleration for 
English Catholics, Cromwell answered, truly, that 
he had done all he could in face of the hostile 
spirit of the people, and more than had before 
been done in England. Of course the position 
of the English Catholics was beyond all compari- 
son better than that of the Vaudois; but in such 
a controversy the ugly fact was that neither side 
would grant to others what it demanded for itself. 
To the most persecuted of all peoples Cromwell 
did render a signal service. He connived at the 
settlement of Jews in London, after having in 
vain sought to bring about their open toleration. 

In Scotland, the rule of the Protector wrought 
unmixed good. There was no persecution and 
no interference with religious liberty, save in so 
far as the restraint of persecution and intolerance 
could itself be called such. Monk, and Dean, 

220 




Henry Cromwell, 

Son of the Protector, and Governor of Ireland. 

From the miniature by S. Cooper at Palmerstown. 

By permission of the K.irl of Mayo. 



PERSONAL RULE 

after him, as Cromwell's lieutenants, did excel- 
lent work, and even cautiously endeavored to 
mitigate the horrors of the persecutions for 
witchcraft — for these horrible manifestations of 
superstition were then in full force in Scotland, 
even more than in either old or New Eng- 
land. 

On the whole, then, England and Scotland 
fared well under Oliver Cromwell — " Old Noll," 
as he was affectionately called by his mainstay, 
the army. In Ireland, the case was different. 
Materially, even in Ireland, the conditions greatly 
improved during the Protectorate, because order 
was rigidly preserved and law enforced ; and any 
system which secured order and law was bound 
to bring about a temporary bettering of condi- 
tions when contrasted with the frightful anarchy 
which had preceded it. Anarchy always serves 
simply as the handmaiden of despotism, as those 
who bring it about should know. But the relig- 
ious element in the Irish problem rendered it in- 
soluble by the means then adopted for its solu- 
tion. Cromwell was not responsible for introduc- 
ing the methods known by his name. They 
were the methods then universally in use by the 
representatives of every victorious nationality or 
religion, in dealing with a beaten foe. The only 
difference was that Cromwell's immense energy 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

and power enabled him to apply them with 
dreadful effectiveness. 

In England, Cromwell stood for religious tol- 
eration, so far as he was able. Fanatics who 
thought themselves incarnations of the Saviour, 
or prophets of a new dispensation, or who in- 
dulged in indecent or seditious conduct, or who 
disturbed the public peace by breaking into reg- 
ular churches, of course had to be suppressed. 
Nowadays, most offenders of this type would be 
ignored, and, if not, they would simply be ar- 
rested by the police, in the course of the ordinary 
exercise of the police power, just as any other 
disturbers of the peace are arrested. In those 
days, however, such offenders would have been 
punished with death in Spain, Italy, or Austria ; 
and, indeed, in most continental countries. In 
the England of Cromwell, they were merely tem- 
porarily imprisoned. The attitude of mind, both 
of the public generally and of the best and most 
religious people, toward Unitarians, Socinians, 
and those who would nowadays be called Free- 
Thinkers, was purely mediaeval ; and even Crom- 
well could only moderate the persecution to 
which they were subjected. But these were minor 
exceptions. For the majority of the people in 
England, there was religious liberty ; and for the 
bulk of the minority, though there was not com- 



PERSONAL RULE 

plete religious liberty, there was a nearer approach 
to it than obtained in Continental Europe. 

In Ireland, on the other hand, the public exer- 
cise of the faith of the enormous majority was 
prohibited, and their religious teachers expelled. 
There is a popular belief that under Cromwell all 
Irishmen were expelled from three-fourths of the 
island, and driven into Connaught, their places 
being taken by English and Scotch immigrants. 
While exceedingly cruel, this would have been 
an understandable policy, and would have resulted 
in the substitution of one race and one creed for 
another race and another creed throughout the 
major part of the island. What was actually 
done, however, combined cruelty with ultimate 
inefficiency; it caused great immediate suffering, 
while perpetuating exactly the conditions against 
which it was supposed to provide. The Catholic 
landholders were, speaking generally, driven into 
Connaught, and the priests expelled, while the 
peasants, laborers, and artisans were left as they 
were, but of course deprived of all the leadership 
which could give them a lift upward. In Ulster 
there had been a considerable substitution of one 
race for the other, among the actual tillers and oc- 
cupiers of the soil. Under Cromwell, the change 
elsewhere consisted in the bringing in of alien 
landlords. In other words, to the already existing 

223 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

antagonism of race, creed, and speech, was added 
the antagonism of caste. The property-holder, 
the landlord, the man of means, was an English- 
man by race and speech, and a Protestant by faith ; 
while the mass of the laborers roundabout him 
were Catholic Celts who spoke Erse. Ultra ad- 
mirers of Cromwell and the Puritans have actu- 
ally spoken as if this plan, provided only that it 
had been allowed to work long enough, would 
have produced a Puritan Ireland. There was 
never the remotest chance of its producing such 
an effect. The mass of the Irish, when all their 
native teachers were removed, did gradually tend 
to adopt English as their tongue, but their devo- 
tion to their own faith, and their hatred of English 
rule, were merely intensified ; while the course of 
the governing race was such as absolutely to in- 
sure the land troubles which have riven Ireland 
up to the present day. The very unedifying in- 
tolerance of the Protestant sects toward one an- 
other was manifested as strongly in Cromwell's 
time as later. It must be said for him that he did 
not, like his successors for generations, shape Eng- 
lish policy toward Ireland on the lines of Spain's 
policy toward her own colonies, and oppress the 
Protestant descendants of the English in Ireland 
only less than the native Irish themselves ; but 
the great central fact remains that his Irish policy 

224 



PERSONAL RULE 

was one of bitter oppression, and that the abhor- 
rence with which the Irish, to this day, speak of 
" the curse o' Crummle," is historically justifiable. 

It is a relief to turn from the Cromwellian policy 
i"n Ireland to the Cromwellian policy in foreign 
affairs. England never stood higher in her rela- 
tions with the outside world than she stood under 
Cromwell ; a height all the more noteworthy be- 
cause it lay between the two abysses marked by 
the policy of the earlier and the later Stuart kings. 
The French biographer of the great Turenne, du 
Buisson, Major of the Regiment de Verdelin, 
writing in the days of Charles II., when England 
was despised rather than hated on the Continent, 
spoke with a mixture of horror and fear of Crom- 
well, as the man who " apres V attentat le plus enorme 
dont on a jamais out parler, avoit trouve le secret de se 
/aire cralndre, non seulement des Anglois, mats encore 
des Princes voisins" This was written as express- 
ing the attitude of the power with which he was 
in alliance, and from it may be gathered how those 
felt who were opposed to him. 

Cromwell's strong religious feelings and mili- 
tary instincts, alike bade him meddle in the policy 
of the Continent. The era of the great religious 
wars was closed. More than a century was to 
pass before the era of religious persecution was to 
cease, but the time had gone by when one Chris- 

225 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

tian country would try, by force of arms, to con- 
quer another for the purpose of stamping out its 
religious belief. Cromwell, however, did not see 
this, and he naturally chose as his special oppo- 
nent the power which itself was equally blind to 
the fact — that is, Spain. Beyond a question, he 
was influenced partly by the commercial and 
material interests of England in the policy he 
pursued, but the religious motive was uppermost 
in his own mind, and he neve«r could get over the 
feeling that it ought to be uppermost in the 
minds of everyone else. The very able Swedish 
King, Charles X., was then pursuing the fatal 
policy of the Swedish kings of that century, and 
was endeavoring to conquer territory at the ex- 
pense of the Danes and North Germans, instead 
of establishing, to the east and southeast of the 
Baltic, a dominion which could hold its own 
against Russia. Cromwell selected the Swede as 
the natural enemy of Antichrist, and wished to 
back him in a general religious war. He was 
amusingly irritated with the English, because they 
would not feel as he did, and even more with the 
Dutch, Danes, and Brandenburgers for declining 
to let themselves be made the tools of the north- 
ern king's ambition. 

The great European struggle of the day, how- 
ever, was that between Spain and France, and for 

226 



PERSONAL RULE 

some time Cromwell hesitated which side to take. 
He has often been blamed for not striking against 
France, the rising power, whose then youthful 
king was at a later day to threaten all Europe, and 
only to be held in check by coalitions in which 
England was the chief figure. But, though 
France persecuted the Huguenots more or less, 
just as England did the Irish Catholics, she was 
far more advanced than Spain, which was the 
most bigoted and reactionary power of Europe, 
both in religion and in politics. The Spanish 
empire was still very great. Though her power 
on sea had gone, on land she had on the whole 
held her own against the French armies, and, with 
England as her ally, she might for the time being 
have remained the leading 'power of the Conti- 
nent. This would have been a frightful calam- 
ity, and Cromwell was right in throwing the 
weight of his sword on the other side of the 
scale. 

His decision enabled him to do one of the 
most righteous of his many righteous deeds. It 
was at this time that the Duke of Savoy, under 
ecclesiastical pressure, indulged in dreadful per- 
secutions of the humble Protestants of the Vau- 
dois valleys; persecutions which called forth the 
noblest of Milton's sonnets. Oliver interfered, 
with fiery indignation, on behalf of the Vaudois, 

227 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

threatening that if the persecutions continued he 
would not only bring the pressure of the English 
arms to bear, but would hire a great force of mer- 
cenaries among the Protestant Swiss to invade 
the territory of the Duke of Savoy. Largely 
through the influence of Mazarin he succeeded 
in having the wrong partially undone ; and later, 
in the middle of the operations against the Span- 
ish armies, he again interfered, effectively, with 
the Cardinal-Statesman on behalf of his obscure 
and helpless co-religionists in the remote moun- 
tain valleys. This action was purely disinter- 
ested ; and those who are loudest in their denun- 
ciation of Cromwell would do well to remember 
that, if the European rulers at the end of the 
nineteenth century had possessed his capacity for 
generous indignation on behalf of the oppressed, 
the Armenian massacres either would never have 
taken place, or would have been followed by 
the immediate expulsion of the Turk from 
Europe. 

Oliver's first contest with the Spaniards was 
carried on by sea, the great Puritan Admiral, 
Blake, winning renown by his victory over the 
forts at Santa Cruz, as he had already won re- 
nown by the way in which he crushed the forces 
of Tunis, and for the first time taught the Moors 
to respect English arms. An expedition against 

228 



PERSONAL RULE 

San Domingo by Penn and Venables failed, the 
English leaders being treacherous and inefficient, 
but it resulted in the capture of Jamaica and 
the founding of English power in the West 
Indies. On land, as the result of the convention 
with France, the English fleet deprived the Span- 
iards in the Netherlands of assistance from the 
sea, while an English force of 6,000 troops, clad 
in the red uniform which has since become dis- 
tinctive of the British army, was sent to serve 
under Turenne. They overthrew the flower of 
the Spanish infantry, and won the heartiest praise 
from the great French leader. The help given 
by Cromwell was decisive ; the Spaniards were 
beaten and forced to make peace. By this peace 
France became the first power on the Continent, 
but a power heartily afraid of England while 
Cromwell lived, and obliged to yield him Dun- 
kirk as the price of his services. The possession 
of Dunkirk put a complete stop to the piracy 
which had ravaged British commerce, and gave 
to Cromwell a foothold on the Continent which 
rendered him able to enforce from his neighbors 
whatever consideration the honor and interest of 
England demanded. 

Meanwhile, the tone of his Court was a model 
of purity and honesty. Alone among the Courts 
of Europe in that age, under Cromwell no man 

229 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

could rise who was profligate in private life, or 
corrupt in public life. How he had risen socially 
is shown by the fact that his remaining daughters 
now married into the nobility. His domestic re- 
lations were exceptionally tender and beautiful, 
and his grief at the loss of his mother and his fa- 
vorite daughter — his favorite son was already dead 
— was very great. His letters to and about his 
sons are just what such letters should be. He 
explains that he does not grudge them " laudable 
recreations nor honorable carriage in them," nor 
any legitimate expense, but that he does em- 
phatically protest against "pleasure and self- 
satisfaction being made the business of a man's 
life." 

The time had now come, however, when 
Oliver was to leave alike the family for whom he 
had so affectionately cared, and the nation he 
had loved and ruled, and go before the God to 
whom he ever felt himself accountable. When 
1658 opened, peace and order obtained at home, 
and the crown had been put to England's glory 
abroad by the victories in Flanders and the ces- 
sion of Dunkirk. There was not the slightest 
chance of Cromwell's hold on the nation being 
shaken. So far as human eye could see, his pol- 
icy was sure to triumph, as long as he lived ; but 
he was weakened by his hard and strenuous life, 

230 



PERSONAL RULE 

and the fever, by which he had been harassed 
during his later campaigns, came on him with 
renewed force. Even his giant strength had 
been overtaxed by the task of ruling England 
alone, and, as he conscientiously believed, for 
her highest interest. Supreme though his tri- 
umph seemed to outsiders, he himself knew 
that he had failed to make the effects of this 
triumph lasting, though he never seems to have 
suspected that his failure was due to his in- 
capacity to subordinate his own imperious will 
so that he might work with others. He saw 
clearly the chaos into which his death would 
plunge England, and he did not wish to die; 
but as he grew weaker he felt that his hour 
was come, and surrendered himself to the in- 
evitable. 

" I would be willing to live to be further ser- 
viceable to God and His people," muttered the 
dying ruler, showing, as ever, his strange mixture 
of belief in himself and trust in the Most High ; 
" but my work is done ! Yet God will be with 
His people ! " 

September came in with a terrible storm, the 
like of which had rarely been known in England, 
and as it subsided, on September 3d, the day 
which had witnessed the victories of Dunbar and 
Worcester, the soul of the greatest man who has 

231 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

ruled England, since the days of the Conquest, 
passed quietly away. 1 

With his death came the chaos he had fore- 
seen, though he had not foreseen that it could be 
averted only by the substitution of some form of 
self-government by the people, for the arbitrary 
rule of one man — however great and good that 
man might be. For a few months his son", Rich- 
ard, ruled as Protector in his stead, but, the Pro- 
tectorate having become in effect a despotism, it 
was sure to slip from any but Oliver's iron grasp. 
Richard called a Parliament, but Parliaments had 
been hopelessly discredited by Oliver's method of 
dealing with them. The army revolted, forced 
the dismissal of the Parliament, and then the ab- 
dication of Richard. Richard's abler brother, 
Henry, who was governing Ireland as deputy, re- 
signed also, and the Cromwells passed out of 
history. 

For some months there was confusion worse 
confounded, and the whole nation turned toward 
Charles II., and the reestablishment of the Stuart 

1 In the queer little weekly paper " The Commonwealth Mercury," 
of the issue " From Thursday September 2d to Thursday September 
9th, 1658," which contains an account of Cromwell's death and of his 
son's installation, it happens that there is also an advertisement of a 
pamphlet: "A few sighs from Hell, or the Groans of a damned 
Soul: By that poor servant of Jesus Christ, John Bunyan." Crom- 
well, Milton, Bunyan — what can non- Puritan England, of their day, 
show to match these three names ? 

232 




Richard Cromwell. 

Painter unknown. 
By permission of Sir Chules Hartopp, Bart. 



PERSONAL RULE 

kingship. Monk, the ablest of Cromwell's gen- 
erals, a soldier who cared little for forms of civil 
government, who had already fought for the Stu- 
arts against the Parliament, and who would have 
stood by Richard had Richard possessed the 
strength to stand by himself, threw his weight 
in favor of the exiled king, and thereby 
prevented the slightest chance of opposition. 
Charles II. returned, greeted with transports of 
frantic delight by seemingly almost the whole 
people. 

The King and his followers then took revenge 
on the dead body of the man whose living eyes 
they had never dared to face. The bones of 
Cromwell, of his mother, and of Ireton, were dis- 
interred and thrown into a lime-pit; and the head 
of the great Protector was placed on a pole over 
Westminster Hall, there to stand for twenty 
years. 

The skull of the mighty crown-grasper, before 
whose untamable soul they had shuddered in ter- 
ror, was now set on high as a target for the jeer- 
ing mockery of all who sang the praises of the 
line of libertines and bigots to whom the English 
throne had been restored. For twenty-eight 
shameful years the Restoration lasted; years of 
misgovernment and persecution at home, of 
weakness abroad, of oppression of the weak, and 

233 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

obsequious servility to the strong; years when 
the Court of England — devoid of one spark of 
true greatness of any kind — was a scene of tawdry 
and obscene frivolity. Then, once again, the 
principles for which, in the last analysis, Cromwell 
and the Puritans stood, triumphed; the Dutch 
stadtholder came over the narrow seas to ascend 
the throne of England ; and once more the cur- 
rent of her national life set toward political, 
intellectual, and religious liberty. 

Cromwell and the Puritans had gone too far, 
and the reaction against them had been so vio- 
lent that those who called William of Orange 
into England dared not invoke the memory of 
the mighty dead lest they should hurt the cause 
of the living. Nevertheless, the Revolution of 
1688 was in reality but the carrying on of the 
work which had been done in the middle of the 
century. James II. could never have been de- 
posed had not Charles I. been executed. The 
men of the second Revolution had learned the 
moderation which the men of the first had lacked. 
They were careful not to kill the king of whom 
they wished to rid themselves; for though, by 
every principle of equity, a tyrant who has 
goaded his people into Revolution — like the 
leader of an unjustifiable rebellion — should suffer 
the fate which he has brought on so many others, 

234 



PERSONAL RULE 

yet, as a matter of fact, it is often unwise to treat 
him as he deserves, because he has become a 
symbol to his followers, each of whom identifies 
himself with the man whose cause he has been 
supporting, and in whose name he has been fight- 
ing, and resents, with passionate indignation, any 
punishment visited upon his chief as a wrong in 
which he personally shares. The men of 1688 
were, as a whole, actuated by far less lofty mo- 
tives than the men of 1648; but they possessed 
the inestimable advantages of common-sense, of 
moderation, of readiness to accept compromises. 
They made no attempt to realize the reign of the 
saints upon earth ; and therefore they were able 
to work a permanent betterment in mundane 
affairs, and to avoid provoking a violent reaction. 
William, both by position and by temper, was 
far better fitted than great Oliver to submit to in- 
terference with his plans, to get on with represent- 
ative bodies of freemen, and to make the best 
he could out of each situation as it arose, instead 
of indignantly setting his own will above law and 
above the will of the majority, because for the 
moment the result might be better for himself 
and the nation. Speaker Reed once said, that 
" in the long run, the average sense of the many 
is better for the many than the best sense of any 
one man ; " and this is undoubtedly true of all 

235 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

people sufficiently high in the scale to be fit for 
self-government. 

Oliver surely strove to live up to his lights as 
he saw them. He never acted in levity, or from 
mere motives of personal aggrandizement, and he 
saw, with sad, piercing eyes, the dangers that 
rolled around the path he had chosen. He acted 
as he did because he conscientiously felt that only 
thus could he meet the needs of the nation. He 
said to the second Protectorate Parliament : " I 
am a man standing in the place I am in; which 
place I undertook, not so much out of hope of 
doing any good, as out of a desire to prevent mis- 
chief and evil — which I did see was imminent on 
the nation (for we were running along into con- 
fusion and disorder, and would have necessarily 
run into blood)." 

We are often told that the best of all possible ) 
governments would be a benevolent despotism. 
Oliver's failure is a sufficient commentary upon 
this dictum of the parlor doctrinaires. There 
never has been, and probably never will be, an- 
other despotism where the despot so sincerely 
strove to do, for a people capable of some meas- 
ure of freedom, better than they themselves would 
have done with that freedom. The truth is, that 
a strong nation can only be saved by itself, and 
not by a strong man, though it can be greatly 

236 







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PERSONAL RULE 

aided and guided by a strong man. A weak 
nation may be doomed anyhow, or it may find its 
sole refuge in a despot ; a nation struggling out 
of darkness may be able to take its first steps only 
by the help of a master hand, as was true of 
Russia, under Peter the Great; and if a nation, 
whether free or unfree, loses the capacity for self- 
government, loses the spirit of sobriety and of 
orderly liberty, then it has no cause to complain 
of tyranny; but a really great people, a people 
really capable of freedom and of doing mighty 
deeds in the world, must work out its own des- 
tiny, and must find men who will be its leaders — 
not its masters. Cromwell could, in all probabil- 
ity, have been such a leader at the end as he was 
during his early years of public life; and when he 
permitted himself to fall from the position of a 
leader among free men, to that of a master over 
men for whose welfare he sincerely strove, but in 
whose freedom he did not believe, he marred the 
great work he had done. Nevertheless, it was a 
very great work. There are dark blots on his 
career — especially his Irish policy — but on the 
whole he was a mighty force for good and against 
evil, and the good that he did, though buried for 
the moment with his bones, rose again and has 
lived for ever since, while the evil has long with- 
ered, or is now withering. The English-speak- 

237 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

ing peoples are free, and for good or for ill hold 
their destinies in their own hands. 

The effect of the attitude which not only the 
Puritans, but all other Englishmen of every 
creed, assumed toward Ireland from the days of 
Oueen Mary to the days of King George the 
Fourth, was such as to steep the island in centu- 
ries of misery, and to leave in her people a bitter 
and enduring hatred against England. Yet this 
attitude has produced one result of the most un- 
foreseen kind. Had the Irish remained a Celtic 
nation, separate in speech and government from 
Great Britain, they could have had no share in 
the expansion of the English race, or at least 
could have played only a very subordinate part. 
As it is, in the great English-speaking common- 
wealths that have grown up in North America 
and Australasia, the descendants of the Irish now 
stand on an exact equality with those of the 
Scotch and English, and furnish their full propor- 
tion of leadership in the government of the com- 
munities; while in all these English-speaking 
countries the Catholic Church has become one of 
the leading churches and has had its course of 
development determined by the fact that the con- 
trolling force within it has been Irish. The Eng- 
lish Protestants failed to impress their creed upon 
Ireland, but they did impress their language, and 

238 



PERSONAL RULE 

did bring Ireland under their own government. 
The strange outcome has been that the creed they 
hated now flourishes side by side, on equal terms, 
with the creeds they professed, in the distant con^ 
tinents held in common by their children and by 
the children of those against whom they warred. 
In these new continents all, Catholics and Prot- 
estants alike, are wedded to the principles of po- 
litical liberty for which the Puritans fought, and 
have grown to extend to all creeds the principles 
of religious liberty in which only the best and 
most advanced Puritans believed. Let us most 
earnestly hope that, while avoiding the Puritan 
fanaticism and intolerance, the Puritan lack of 
charity and narrowness, we may not lose the Puri- 
tan loftiness of soul and stern energy in striving 
for the right, than which no nation could ever 
have more precious heritages. 

With Oliver's death his memory passed under 
a cloud, through which his greatness was to be 
but dimly seen until generations of men had lived 
and died. He left many descendants, and there 
are now in England, and also in America, and 
possibly Australia, very many men and women, 
in all ranks of life, who have his blood in their 
veins — though in the direct line his name has 
died out. Even during the present century, 
when among the English upper classes it was still 

239 



OLIVER CROMWELL 

customary to speak of him with horroi, his very- 
descendants in certain families felt keen shame 
for the deeds of their great forefather. With a 
childishness in no way above that of a Congo 
savage, it was actually the fashion in some of 
these families to make the children do penance 
on the anniversary of the death of Charles II., as 
a kind of atonement for the deeds of Cromwell. 
The grotesque nature of this performance is 
added to by the fact that in that very society a 
peculiaily high place of honor was accorded to 
the titled descendants of Charles II. and his mis- 
tresses. One hardly knows whether to be most 
amused or indignant at such fantastic incapacity 
to appreciate what was really noble and what 
really ignoble. The men among whom such 
false conventions obtained could not be expected 
to see in its true proportions the form of mighty 
Oliver, looming ever larger across the intervening 
centuries. Sooner or later, justice will be done 
him ; sooner or later, he will be recognized, not 
only as one of the greatest of all Englishmen, and 
by far the greatest ruler of England itself, but as 
a man who, in times that tried men's souls, dealt 
with vast questions and solved tremendous prob- 
lems ; a man who erred, who was guilty of many 
shortcomings, but who strove mightily toward the 
light as it was given him to see the light ; a man 

240 




Oliver Cromwell. 



From the bust by Bernini, presented to the House of Commons by 
Charles Wertheimer, Esq. 

From a photograph, by permission of the donor. 



PERSONAL RULE 

who had the welfare of his countrymen and the 
greatness of his country very close to his heart, 
and who sought to make the great laws of right- 
eousness living forces in the government of the 
world. 



THE END. 



241 



INDEX 



Abolition, in United States, 193 

Abolitionists, 103, 192 

Adamses, the, 36 

Agathokles, 210 

Ale-houses, suppressed under Pro- 
tectorate, 213, 214 

Alva, 156 

America, Protestants and Catho- 
lics in, 12 ; freedom from militar- 
ism in eighteenth century, 19 ; 
power of compromise after Revo- 
lution, 100 ; true greatness of, 
179 ; city government in, 214 ; 
Cromwell's descendants in, 239 

American Civil War, compared 
with English Civil Wars, 5, 6, 
61, 62; citizen soldiers in, 64; 
West Point in, 67 ; cavalry in, 
70 ; compromises after, 102 ; 
generosity of victors, 216 

American Revolution, War of the, 
comparisons with English Revo- 
lution of 1688, 6 ; with English 
Civil Wars, 61 ; its citizen sol- 
diers, 64; regular soldiery, 91; 
compromises after, 100 ; Wash- 
ington, 101 ; events preceding, 
114 ; Continental Congress in, 
177 ; clemency following, 217 

Americans, majority rule natural 
to, 25 ; regicide sentimentalists 
among, 138 ; religious toleration, 
161 ; character of, in eighteenth 
century, 190 

Anabaptists, 77, 103, 143, 213, 220 

Anglican Church, its Presbyterian 
trend under Elizabeth, 23 ; its 
influence on Charles I. 's Third 
Parliament, 29 

Antichrist, 226 

Appomattox, Sheridan at, 171 

Argyle, joins Whigamore raid, 130; 
ally of Cromwell, 131 

Armenian massacres, 228 

Armmianism, in Holland, 12 

Arminius, 12 

Army, the Cavalier, 64 



Army, American Continental, 102 

Army, the English, in Civil Wars, 
composition of, 60 ; first raised 
by nobles, 63 ; reorganization of 
Parliamentary forces, 94 ; char- 
acter in Charles I.'s time, 107; 
dissensions, 108, m et seq. ; its 
strength against the Parliament, 
116 ; its struggles with the King 
and Parliament, 117 et seq. ; its 
spirit, 121 ; odds against it in 
Second Civil War, 124 ; Charles 
I.'s negotiations with, 134 ; march 
into London, 136 ; revolt sup- 
pressed by Cromwell, 144 ; its 
distinctive character, 145 ; its in- 
fluence in Long Parliament, 177 
et seq. ; offset by navy, 184 ; re- 
jects Parliamentary measures, 
185 ; supports Cromwell, 189 ; 
attitude under Protectorate, 199 ; 
protests against Cromwell's ac- 
cepting Kingship, 215 ; serves 
under Turenne, 229 ; revolts 
against Richard Cromwell, 232 

Army, the Scottish, gives up 
Charles I., 117 

Artillery, chief means of assault 
in Cromwell's time, 59 

Assembly, formed under Protec- 
torate, 189, 191 et seq. 

Associations, of counties, 63 ; as- 
sessed for Parliamentarians, 79. 
See also Eastern Association 

Astley, Sir Jacob, quoted, 99 

Aston, Sir Arthur, at Drogheda, 

153, 154 

Atlantic Ocean, the, 179 

Australasia, 238 ; English expan- 
sion there, 238 

Australia, Cromwell's descendants 
in, 239 

Australians, in South Africa, 67 

Balgony, Lord, at Marston 

Moor, 88 
Baltic Sea, the, 226 



243 



INDEX 



•-" 



Baptists, the, origin under James 
I. , 23 ; tolerated by Cromwell, 
78 ; army sentiment toward, 108 ; 
Parliamentary hatred of, 116 ; 
under the Protectorate, 200 

Barbadoes, Irish sent as slaves 
there, 153 

Barbon, " Praise-God," 191 

"Barebones" Parliament, forma- 
tion of, 191, 193 et seq. ; attacks 
Courts of Chancery, 200, 212 

Basing House, capture of, 98 

Baxter, 74 

Beard, Thomas, Cromwell's tutor, 
44 

Bedford, Earl of, 45 

Bench and bar, courage in, 181 

Berwick, seized by Royalists, 121 

Bishops, the, attitude of, toward 
Thirty Years' War, 30 ; Parlia- 
mentary resolutions against, 31 ; 
army sentiment toward, 108 

Bishops' Wars, the cause of, 40 ; 
Scotch share in, 124 

Blake, Admiral, in Parliament, 
116 ; defeats Prince Rupert, 
130 ; his great fame, 182, 183, 
184 ; his indifference toward 
Cromwell, 201 ; his victory at 
Santa Cruz, 228 
.xBoers, as soldiers, 67 ; belated 
Cromwellians, 144 ; compared 



with Covenanters, 165 

Border, the, in Civil Wars, 55, 84, 
130, 131, 174 

Boston, U. S. A., regicide senti- 
mentalism in, 138 

Boston Harbor, tea thrown over- 
board in, 35 

Bouchier, Elizabeth, wife of Oliver 
Cromwell, 43 

Brandenburghers, 226 

Breast-pieces, 60 

Bristol, capture of, 98 ; Cromwell's 
letter from, 105, 106 

British Islands, the Commonwealth 
in, 177 

Buchanan, President, his views on 
secession, 164 

Buckingham, Duke of, his corrupt 
ministry, 26 ; his assassination, 
28 

Buff coats, uniform of Parliamen- 
tarians, 6o, 64 ; worn by Royal- 
ists at Winchester, 83 

Buisson, de, quoted, 225 

Bunyan, John, 69, 232, note 



Bureau of Intelligence, Chief of. 
See Scout-?naster 

Burleigh House, taken by Parlia- 
mentarians, 81 

Byzantine Emperors, 172 

Cadiz, Charles I.'s expedition 
against, 26 

Calvin, his zeal for righteousness, 7 

Calvinism, in Holland, 12 ; its in- 
fluence in England, 29; in Scot- 
land, 165 

Calvinists, their intolerance of Ro- 
man Catholics, 13 

Cambridge, University of, Crom- 
well's residence there, 42, 43 ; its 
plate seized by Cromwellians, 70 

Canadians, in South Africa, 67 

Cannon, Cromwell's lack of, at 
Pembroke, 22 

Captain-General, Cromwell's of- 
fice of, 163, 189 

Carbines, 60 ; discarded by Crom- 
wellians, 79 

Carlyle, taken by Royalists, 121 

Carlyle, Thomas, his opinion of 
Cromwell, 1, 2 ; of Puritanism, 
2 ; on regicide, 140 

Carnsworth, Earl of, 96 

Casques, 64 

Catholic Church, its recognition in 
Ireland demanded by the Pope, 
148 ; modern greatness of, 238 

Catholics, aimed at by Third Par- 
liament, 31 ; unite with Royal- 
ists and Presbyterians in Ireland, 
120, 122 ; character of, in Ireland, 
146 ; aid of, for Charles II., 147 ; 
dissensions in Ireland, 146-149 ; 
Cromwellian hatred of, 152, 161 ; 
persecutions of, 217, 218 ; Maz- 
arin's plea for them in England, 
220 ; as landholders in Ireland, 
223 ; their share in British ex- 
pansion to-day, 239. See also 
Roman Catholics 

Cavaliers, dress of, 64 ; at Grant- 
ham, 79, 80; at Marston Moor, 
88 ; at Naseby, 96 ; rising against 
army, 120 ; support Charles I. 
in the North, 121 ; Cromwell's 
opinion of, 123 ; allegiance to 
Charles II. in Scotland, 172 ; at 
Stirling, 174 ; at Worcester, 175 

Cavalry, its superiority to infan- 
try- 59i 60 ; among the Royal- 
ists, 70 ; horse the true weapon 



244 



INDEX 



of, 79 ; at Gainsborough, 82 ; 
Scotch at Marston Moor, 87, 88 ; 
Naseby, 96 ; Ironsides spirit in, 
107 ; Hamilton's, 122 ; at Pres- 
ton, 127 

Cavendish, Lord, at Gainsborough, 
81, 82 

Celtic, 16, 224 

Celts, the, 16, 146, 224 

Censorship of press, established 
under Protectorate, 216 

Charles I., his ignoble peace, 19 ; 
his private character, 25 ; help- 
lessness of English arms under 
his rule, 26 ; his Third Parlia- 
ment, 27 ; yields to Petition of 
Right, 28 ; his dissolution of his 
Third Parliament, 31 ; rejects 
Petition of Right, 32 ; embarks 
on Bishops' Wars, 40; his attitude 
toward the Long Parliament, 51 ; 
betrays Strafford, 52 ; makes 
terms with the Scotch, 55 ; im- 
prisons Puritan leaders, 57 ; his 
adherents in the Commons, 61 ; 
marches on London, 71 ; turn of 
tide in his favor, 79 ; makes 
overtures to the Irish, 84 ; de- 
feats Waller at Copredy Bridge, 
91 ; his army at Newbury, 92 ; 
at Naseby, 95-97 ; surrenders 
to Scotch army, 98 , English 
servility toward him, 101 ; his 
treachery, 104 ; supported by 
Presbyterians, 109; "the man 
of blood," 114; his non-accept- 
ance of his defeat, 115 ; negoti- 
ates with the army and Parlia- 
ment, 117 et seq. ; Cromwell 
attempts terms with him, 119 ; 
Yorkshire support for, 121 ; 
Scotch attitude toward him, 123; 
his tenacity, 132 ; negotiations 
with the army, 134 ; he rejects 
Fairfax's proposals, 135 ; his 
trial for treason. 136 ; beheaded, 
137 ; his character, 137-140 ; his 
policy in Ireland, 146; Cath- 
olic allegiance to him, 147 ; his 
imprisonment, 148 ; effect of his 
execution on Ireland, 150 ; his 
death due to Parliamentarians, 
178 ; his execution, 217 ; anni- 
versary oi his death observed, 
240 

Charles II., the fleet loyal to him, 
130; proclaimed King at Cork. 



150 ; the Scotch declare for him, 
162 ; lands in Scotland, 165 et 
seq. ; supported by Scotch Cava- 
liers, 172 ; crosses into England, 

174 ; his escape from Worcester, 

175 ; his exile, 178 ; influences 
for his restoration, 209 ; England 
in his time, 225 ; his re-estab- 
lishment, 232 ; his mistresses, 240 

Charles X., of Sweden, 226 

Chester, seized by Royalists, 121 ; 
negotiations there, 148 

Christianity, heterodoxy in Parlia- 
mentary, 108 

Church and State, Puritan theo- 
ries of, 114 ; reform in, 195 

Churchmen, arbitrary power of, 
161 

Civil War. See American Civil 
War 

Civil War, First English, the fiery 
ordeal of, 20 ; begun by Charles, 
57 ; its chief leaders cavalrymen, 
60 ; its blunders contrasted with 
American Civil War, 62 ; English 
soldiery in, 91 ; its slow progress, 
94; type of its generals, 95; 
practically ends at Naseby, 97,' 
its effects on Cromwell, 104 , 
Irish share in, 122 ; exchange of 
prisoners, 128 

Civil War, Second English, its be- 
ginning, 121 ; ended at Preston, 
130 ; results, 131 ; Carlyle's opin- 
ion of, 235 

Clergy, 78, 92 ; threatened by 
Protectorate Assembly, 193 

Clonmel, capture of, 162 

Clubmen, peasant organization, 
62 

Cock-fighting, suppressed under 
Protectorate, 213 

Colchester, seized by Royalists, 
121 ; capitulation of, 130 

Colonial policy, Spain's, 224 

Colonial possessions, Spanish, 227 , 
Dutch, 17, 18, 182 

Commercial policy, Cromwell's, in 
war against Spain, 226 

Committee of Both Kingdoms, the, 

8 5> 92 

Committee of Correspondence, in 
American Revolution, 114 

Committee of the Eastern Associa- 
tion, 85 

Common law, the, under the Pro 
tectorate, 200 



245 



INDEX 



Commons, House of, declares 
against tonnage and poundage, 
31 ; triennial meetings, 54 ; fa- 
vored by London, 57 ; its adhe- 
rents of the King, 61 ; Cromwell's 
share in, 93 ; the Independents, 
116 ; defies the army, 118, 
135 ; disregards Lords in the 
King's trial, 136; Parliamenta- 
rian leaders, 185 ; Republicans, 
204 ; agreement with Crom- 
well, 205. See also Parliament ; 
Long Parliament, etc. 

Commonwealth, established, 6 ; 
reorganizes its forces, 93 ; its 
supremacy, 139 ; its character, 
141 ; European attitude against 
it, 143 ; Cromwell its main sup- 
port, 163 ; authority, 177 ; its 
religionist enemies, 198 ; civil 
rights under it, 217 

Commonwealth Mercury, The, 232, 
note 

Compromise, Parliamentary inca- 
pacity for, ioi ; after American 
Civil War, 102 

Conlederacy, the, of American 
Southern States, 72, 92 

Confederates in Ireland, 150 

Congregationalists, origin under 
Elizabeth, 23 ; identified with In- 
dependent party, 49 ; tolerated 
by Cromwell, 78 ; in Parliament, 
108 ; Parliamentarian hatred of, 
116 ; under the Protectorate, 200 

Congress, the American Conti- 
nental, compared with Crom- 
wellian Parliaments, 102, 103, 

"4, 177 
Connaught, 223 
Conquest, the [Norman], 232 
Constitution, the American, 189 ; 

193, 196, 198 
Constitution, English, 135 ; under 

the Assembly, 195, 198 ; under 

the Protectorate, 205 
" Constitution-mongers," Carlyle's 

sneer at, 5 
Continent, the, character of its 

armies, 60; Cromwell's interest 

in its politics, 225 ; the power of 

France on, 229 
Continental Army, the American, 

102 
Convention, Constitutional, in U. 

S., 189 ; in English Assembly, 

192-195 



Coote, holds Derry for Parliamen- 
tarians, 150 

Copredy Bridge, Battle of, 91 

Cork, Charles II. proclaimed King 
there, 150 ; Cromwell's letter 
from there, 160 

Cornwall, neutrality of, 63 

Cotton, John, Cromwell's letter 
to, 179 

Council of Officers, in English As- 
sembly, 195, 197 ct sea. 

Council, the, in Parliamentary 
army, 114 

Council of State, the, 189, 195 

Court, purity of Cromwellian, 229 ; 
disgracefulness under Restora- 
tion, 230 

Courts of Chancery, English, 181, 
192, 200 

Covenant, National, of Scotland, 
the, 39 ; taken by Parliamenta- 
rians, 78 ; by English troopers, 
84 ; Hamiltonian devotion to, 
123 ; taken by Ulster Scotch, 
148 ; Fairfax declines campaign 
against, 163 ; oath taken by 
Charles II., 165 ; Cromwell's ex- 
position of, 172 et sea. 

Covenanters, the Scotch, defeat- 
ed by Cromwell, 75 ; intoler- 
ance of sectaries, '116; treat- 
ment of Charles II., 165; op- 
pose Puritans at Dunbar, 170 ; 
persecuted by Episcopalians, 
217 

Creed, in United States, 2, 9 ; in 
Ireland, 224, 239 

Cromwell, Bridget, daughter of 
Oliver, married to Ireton, 105 

Cromwell, Elizabeth Steward, 
mother of Oliver, 42, 233 

Cromwell, Henry, son of Oliver, 
232 

Cromwell, Oliver, his fame, 1 ; 
forces which produced him, 7 ; 
youth and early manhood, 14; 
seat in Long Parliament, 41 ; 
parentage and birth, 42 ; his 
marriage, 43 ; his Puritanism, 
43 ; hatred of Church of Rome, 
44, 56 ; removes to Ely, 45 ; 
supports Petition of Rights, 45 ; 
his indifference to political 
theory, 46 ; his piety, 47 ; his 
religion, 48; personality, 50; 
impatience of system, 53 ; his 
suspicion of the Episcopacy, 56 ; 



246 



INDEX 



captain in 67th Regiment, 58 ; 
his kinsmen at the battle of Not- 
tingham, 58 ; his troops, 65 ; his 
military genius, 68 ; his troop of 
horse, 70, 72, 73-75 ; promoted 
to a colonelcy, 74 ; his letters, 
76 ; his tolerant spirit, 77 ; bear- 
ing toward Episcopalians, 78 ; as 
cavalry commander, 79 ; dubbed 
Ironsides by Rupert, 81 ; his re- 
lief of Gainsborough, 82 ; at 
Winceby, 83 ; his generalship, 
84 ; member of Committee of 
Both Kingdoms, 85 ; at Marston 
Moor, 87-90 ; his training of 
troops, 91 ; distrusted by Pres- 
byterians, 92 ; the real head of 
the army, 94 ; Montrose not com- 
parable with him, 95 ; at Nase- 
by, 96 et seq. ; takes Winches- 
ter, 98 ; his rule after First Civil 
War, 99 ; compared with Will- 
iam III., 101 et seq. ; his un- 
compromising spirit, 102 ; his 
children's marriages, 104 ; his 
religious spirit, 105 ; his letters 
and speeches, 105, 106 ; on re- 
construction, 109 et seq. ; not ex- 
treme against Charles, 114 ; ef- 
forts toward agreement with 
King and Parliament, 118 ; favors 
army against Parliamentarians, 
119 ; at Pembroke, 121 ; his view 
of the Scotch, 123 ; his reception 
at Edinburgh, 131 ; his position 
at close of Civil Wars, 132 ; mo- 
tives for joining Independents, 
133-135 ; favors the regicide, 
I 37i I 39 _I 4° ; his ambition, 142 ; 
his army, 145 ; his Irish cam- 
paign, 151 et seq. ; his cruelty at 
Drogheda, 155 ; Wexford, 158 ; 
contradictions of his character; 
159 et seq. ; letter to John Cot- 
ton, 160 ; excellent conduct of 
Irish campaign, 162 ; summoned 
from Ireland by Parliament, 163 ; 
advances on and retreats from 
Edinburgh, 167 et seq. ; at Dun- 
bar, 170-172 ; his dispute with 
the Kirk party, 172 et seq. ; his 
clemency, 174 ; attacks Charles 
II. at Worcester, 175 ; cham- 
pions Independents, 179 ; policy 
toward Parliamentarians, 180 et 
seq. ; his views on Dutch War, 
184 ; defeats non-reelection bill, 



186; his statesmanship, 188 el 
seq. ; his sermon to the Assem- 
bly, 91 et seq. ; despotism, 195 ; 
first Protector, 197, 199 ; his 
peace with the Dutch, 201 ; his 
conflict with Parliament, 202 et 
seq. ; his government a tyranny, 
210 et seq. ; suppresses the ale- 
houses, 213, 214 ; declines the 
Kingship, 215 ; his views on lib- 
erty, 219 ; interferes in Conti- 
nental affairs, 225 et seq. ; re- 
venges Vaudois massacres, 227, 
228 ; contests Spain on the sea, 
228 ; his court, 229 ; last illness, 
230, 231 ; death, 232 ; desecra- 
tion of his remains by Restora- 
tionists, 233 ; compared with 
William III., 235 ; political 
ideals, 236 et seq. ; cruelty of his 
Irish policy, 237 ; posthumous 
reputation, 239 

Cromwell, Richard, son of Oliver, 
as Protector, 232 

Cromwell, Robert, father of Oli- 
ver, 42 ; his death, 43 

" Crummle, the curse o'," 225. See 
Cromwell, Oliver, and Ireland 

Cuirassiers, use in Parliamentary 
army, 60 ; at Winceby, 83 ; the 
Scotch at Marston Moor, 88 

Czars, the, 9 

Danes, the, Charles X. 's war 
against, 226 

Dean, Colonel, at Preston, 126 ; in 
Dutch War, 183 ; his rule in Scot- 
land, 221 

Death penalty, a cause of senti- 
mentalism, 137, 138 ; its justice 
on tyrants, 234, 235 

Declaration, Cromwell's, in Ire- 
land, 159, 161 

Democracy, Cromwell's bearing 
toward, 211 

Derry, siege of, 150 ; supports 
Parliamentarians, 152 

De Ruyter, 182 

Despotism, under republics, 22 ; 
under the Stuarts, 28 ; under 
Cromwell, 213 ; a subject of doc- 
trinaire notions, 236 

Discipline, a military necessity, 91 ; 
a source of soldiers' ties, 107 ; 
rigidly enforced by Cromwell, 

152 

Dissenters, persecuted under Eliz- 



247 



INDEX 



abeth, 23 ; aimed at by Third 
Parliament, 31 ; position under 
the Protectorate, 200 

Dragoons, 60, 79 ; Royalists at 
Winceby, 83 

Drake, 14, 18 

Dreyfus case, the, 22 

Drilling, excellence of Cromwell's 
troops at Winceby, 83 

Drogheda, siege of, 41, 48, 150 ; 
Parliamentarian atrocities there, 
153 et seq., 160 

Dublin, Puritan rule there, 146, 
147 ; surrendered to Parliamen- 
tarians, 149 ; Supreme Council 
of, 150 ; siege of, 151 ; Crom- 
well's troops there, 152 

Duke, Basil, 70 

Dunbar, Leslie engages the Eng- 
lish there, 169 et seq., 172, 173 ; 
fate of Scotch prisoners captured 
there, 174 ; anniversary of, 198, 
231 

Dundalk, surrender of, 150 ; gar- 
risoned by Cromwell, 157 

Dunkirk, ceded to English, 229, 
230 

Dutch, the, their sailors in wars 
with Spain, 14 ; oppressions un- 
der Spain, 36 ; Parliamentarian 
war with, 181 et seq. ; commer- 
cial supremacy, 184 ; religious 
toleration, 200 ; peace with Eng- 
land, 201 ; war with Charles X. , 
226 

Eastern Association, the, 63; 
the Ironsides in, 81 ; committee 
of, 85 ; its infantry at Marston 
Moor, 86-89 I its training, 91 ; the 
pattern for the New Model, 93. 
See also Associations 

Edgehill, battle of, 71-73 ; Charles 
I. 's standard-bearer there, 154 

Edinburgh, Laud's attempt to in- 
troduce the Prayer-Book there, 
39 ; Cromwell's reception there, 
131 ; besieged by Cromwell, 167 ; 
surrendered to Cromwell, 174 

Edinburgh, Governor of, 172 

Eglinton, Earl of, at Marston 
Moor, 88 

Eliot, Sir John, character of, 27; 
his leadership in Parliament, 30, 
31 ; his imprisonment, 32; death, 
33; Charles I.'s vengeance on, 
^37 



Elizabeth, Queen, her absolutism, 
8 ; her bearing toward Anglican 
Church, 9 ; yields to the mo- 
nopolies, 10 ; her veiled despot- 
ism, 22 ; persecutes Dissenters, 
23 ; her war with Spain on the 
sea, 58 ; compared with Crom- 
well, 212 ; Puritan persecutions 
in her reign, 217 

Ely, home of Cromwell's mother, 
42, 45 

Ely Cathedral, Cromwell's inter- 
ference there, 78 

England, champion of religious 
liberty, 15, 21 ; overlordship in 
Ireland, 15, 16 ; peace under 
James I., 19 ; rural and agricult- 
ural population, 58 ; military 
experience, 59 ; political inca- 
pacity in Cromwell's time, 111 ; 
relation with Scotland in Sec- 
ond Civil War, 123 ; pitted 
against Scotland under the Com- 
monwealth, 164 ; law of, 181 ; 
her carrying trade in Dutch War, 
183 ; her commercial greed, 184 ; 
self-government, 192 ; political 
freedom, 197 ; Parliamentarian 
supremacy in, 198 ; representa- 
tive government, 206 ; condition 
under the Protectorate, 211 et 
seq. , 216, 221 et seq. , 225 ; her Irish 
policy, 227 ; foreign fame, 230 ; 
condition after Cromwell, 231 ct 
seq. ; Cromwell's descendants 
in, 239 

England's Freedom and Soldiers' 
Rights, cry of, 119 

English, the, as sailors in the Span- 
ish wars, 14 ; their excellence as 
military material, 58 ; love of 
sports, 59; serve as troops in 
Ireland, 84 ; at Marston Moor, 
86 ; character of, in seventeenth 
•century, 100 et seq. ; in India, 
151 ; their treatment of the Irish, 
162 ; capacity for self-govern- 
ment, 190, 220 ; immigrants into 
Ireland, 223 ; in West Indies, 
229 ; expansion of, 238 

English Presbyterians, for the 
King against the army, 120 

Episcopacy rejected by the 
Scotch, 38-40 ; abolition of, de- 
manded by Long Parliament, 
56 ; under Cromwell's govern- 
ment, 218 



248 



INDEX 



Episcopalian Royalists, 177 

Episcopalians, 78 ; clergy hated by 
Presbyterians, 92 ; their intoler- 
ance, 104; Parliament deserted 
by them, 108 ; with the Royal- 
ists in Ireland, 122, 132, 146 ; 
under the Protectorate, 197 ; the 
Prayer-Book denied them by the 
Commonwealth, 217 

Erse, 224 

Essex, Earl of, leader of Parlia- 
mentary forces, 57 ; his Guards, 
63, 64 ; at Northampton, 69 ; his 
blunders, 91 ; compared with 
McClellan, 92 

Essex, Fairfax in, 121 

Europe, armed against French 
Revolutionists, 120 ; effect of 
regicide on, 138 ; Dutch posi- 
tion in, 182, 184 ; religious tol- 
erance, 200 ; liberty, 219 ; strug- 
gles of Spain and France, 226, 
227 ; Turks in, 228 ; profligacy in 
seventeenth century, 230 

Evolution, of English political free- 
dom, 197 

Executive, English and American, 
compared, 198 

Expansion, English, 237-239 

Extremists, in English Parliament, 
113, 206 

Fairfax, Sir Thomas, his friend- 
ship with Cromwell, 79 ; at 
Winceby, 83 ; at York, 85 ; 
Marston Moor, 86, 87 ; in com- 
mand of Parliamentarians, 93 ; at 
Naseby, 96, 97 ; captures Bristol, 
98 ; returned to Parliament, 116; 
approves Cromwell's joining 
army party, 119 ; his march into 
Kent, 121 ; takes Colchester, 
130 ; Cromwell's letter to, 131 ; 
counsels moderation toward the 
King, 135 ; declines campaign 
against Covenanters, 163 ; his 
indecision, 164 et scq. 

Falkland, Lord, 57 

Fanaticism, consequent on Eng- 
lish Revolution, 143 

Fifth Monarchy, 103 ; principles of, 
112, 113 

Flag, English, Dutch salute in- 
sisted on, 183 

Flanders, English victories in, 230 

Fleet, English, supports Parlia- 
mentarians, 122 ; deserts to 



Royalists, 130 ; its share in 
Dutch wars, 183 ; supports Crom- 
well, 189 ; under the Protector- 
ate, 199 

Foot, in seventeenth-century war- 
fare, 59 ; Parliamentarians', at 
Gainsborough, 82 ; Scots', at 
Marston Moor, 88. See also In- 
fantry 

Forrest, General, his inferiority to 
Grant, 68 ; compared with Mon- 
trose, 94 

Fortescue, Sir Faithful, deserts 
Parliamentarians at Edgehill, 71 

Four Fundamentals, the, 205 

France, serfs of, 59 ; Prince Ru- 
pert in, 130 ; Royalist refugees 
in, 149 ; Protestants, 162 ; in 
wars with Spain, 226, 227 ; con- 
vention with England, 229 

Franchise, the, redistribution of, 
under the Protectorate, 197 

Frederick the Great, 145 

Free State, the, 141. See also 
Commonwealth. 

French, character of the, in eigh- 
teenth century, 100, 190 

French Revolution, the, 120 

Frobisher, 14 

Gainsborough, siege of, 81 

Galley slaves, English prisoners 
as, 129 

Garrison, American Abolitionist, 
103 

Geddes, Jenny, at Edinburgh, 39 

Geneva, 12 

Gentiles, 220 

Gentlemen, Cromwell's opinion of, 
76 

Gentry, English, 59 ; against 
Charles I., 61 ; support of the 
King in Wales, 121 

George III., his Government re- 
jected by American Continental 
Congress, 36 

George IV., 238 

Germany, English adventurers in, 
58 ; serfs of, 59 

Germans, the, Charles X.':. aggres- 
sions against, 226 

Gladstone, early writings of, 49 

Golden Rule, the, 47 

Good government, Cromwell's no- 
tion of, 204 

Gordon, piety of, compared with 
Cromwell's, 105 



249 



INDEX 



Goring, General, at Marston Moor, 
87, 88, 89 ; defeated by Fairfax, 
98 

Government, its development in 
Great Britain, 198 ; Cromwell's 
practice of, 211 

Grand Remonstrance, the, against 
Charles I., 56, 57 

Grant, General, his volunteer sol- 
diery, 65 ; his development of 
troops, 91 ; his superiority to 
Forrest, 95 ; his political sup- 
porters, 103 ; his soldiers, 145 ; 
his generosity, 216 

Grantham, Cromwell at, 79 

Great Britain, Charles II. declared 
King of, by the Scotch, 143 ; gov- 
ernment of, 198 ; expansion of, 
238 

Greeks, the, under Agathokles, 210 

Greene, General, 91 

Guards, of Lord Essex, buff coats 
adopted by them as uniform, 64 ; 
of Charles I., 64 

Gunpowder, its use in Cromwell- 
ian times, 59 

Gunpowder Plot, the, 44 

Gustaphus Adolphus, his cam- 
paign against Spain, 14 ; his ca- 
reer, 39, 167 

Hamilton, Duke of, 120; his cam- 
paigns in Second Civil War, 
122-124 J at Preston, 127 ; be- 
heading of, 128 ; Kirk attitude 
toward him, 166 

Hampden, John, Carlyle's opinion 
of, 3 ; originality of type of, 5 ; 
his tolerance, 5 ; refuses to pay 
Ship Money, 35, 45 ; his relations 
with Cromwell, 46 ; his Puritan- 
ism defined, 50 ; compared with 
Cromwell, 53 ; his imprisonment, 
57 ; a cousin of Cromwell, 58 ; 
uniform of his regiment, 64 ; at 
Edgehill, 72 ; Cromwell's opin- 
ion of his troops, 73 ; his death, 
80 ; in Parliament, 177 

Hapsburg, House of, in Spain and 
Austria, 17 

Harrison, English Republican gen- 
eral, 136 ; his devotion to Crom- 
well, 186 ; calls musketeers into 
Parliament, 187 ; his fanaticism, 
199 

Hawkins, Admiral, in Spanish 
wars, 14, 18 



Hein, Piet, Dutch admiral in Span- 
ish wars, 210 

Helmets, carried by Cromwellian 
cavalry, 60 

Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles 

I., 25 

Henry, Patrick, compared with 
Pym, 36 

Henry VIII., King of England, 
his bearing toward the Reforma- 
tion, 7 ; his dealings with lower 
classes, 8 ; with the Anglican 
Church, 9 ; his career impossible 
under a Long Parliament, 11 ; 
his oppressions, 22 

High Court of Justice, Charles I. 
tried by, 136 

Highlanders, the Scotch, in the 
Civil Wars, 95 ; their chiefs at 
Stirling, 174 ; at Worcester, 175 

Highlands, the, General Monk 
in, 201 

Hofer's Tyrolese, 67 

Holland, her stand against Spain, 
15 ; her colonial empire, 17 ; 
House of Orange in, 135 ; effect 
of regicide on, 138 ; alliance 
with, desired by Cromwell, 184 

Horse (cavalry), of the Parliamen- 
tarians, 57 ; at Edgehill, 71 ; 
Winceby, 83 ; of the Parliamen- 
tarians at Marston Moor, 87, 88 ; 
manoeuvres with, at Marston 
Moor, 89 ; use of, at Naseby, 96 ; 
in retreat at Preston, 127, 128 ; 
service at Dunbar, 170 et seq. 

Horse-racing, suppressed under 
the Protectorate, 213 

Howard, English admiral, 14 

Huguenots, Charles I. 's feeble 
move against them, 26 ; perse- 
cuted in France, 227 

Hume, his opinion of Cromwell's 
speeches, 203 

Huntingdon, birthplace of Crom- 
well, 41, 42, 44, 45 

Immigration of the English and 
Scotch into Ireland, 223 

Inchiquin, Lord, Parliamentarian 
leader in Ireland, 148, 149; capt- 
ures Drogheda, 150 

Independent Movement, the so- 
called, under Elizabeth, 23 

Independents, English political 
party, 49 ; Cromwell at head of, 
49 ; bearing toward the Presby- 



250 



terians, 80 ; real source of their 
power the Ironsides, 81 ; hated 
by the Presbyterians, 92 ; their 
strength in the army, 94 ; their 
spirit commended by Cromwell, 
106 ; their proposed reconcilia- 
tion with Parliamentarians, 115; 
Charles I. 's designs on them, 
116 ; they take refuge in the 
army, 118 ; conquerors of the 
Royalists, 120 ; their prompt ac- 
tion in Second Civil War, 121 ; 
their political isolation, 133 ; 
rupture with Irish Presbyterians, 
150; their strength in the Com- 
monwealth, 164 ; in Parliament, 
177 et seq. ; support of Cromwell 
in the Rump Parliament, 189; 
under the Protectorate, 199, 220 

Indian Mutiny, compared with 
state of Ireland under Cromwell, 
151 

Infantry, Parliamentarians', at Not- 
tingham, 57 ; use of, in Crom- 
well's time, 59, 60 ; in action at 
Marston Moor, 87 ; at Naseby, 
96; its importance at Preston, 
127; at Dunbar, 170; Spanish, 
defeated by British in the Neth- 
erlands, 229 

Inquisition, the, in Spain, 14 ; the 
handmaid of tyranny, 17 ; relig- 
ious aspects of, 48 

Instrument of Government, the, 
195 et seq. ; recognized by Par- 
liament, 204 

Insurgents, the Irish, 147 et seq. 

Ireland, England's treatment of, 
15, 16 ; priesthood loyal to its 
peasantry, 17 ; Protestantism in, 
17 ; its prosperity under Straf- 
ford, 36 ; revolts against Charles 
l.'s government, 56; English 
troops in, 84 ; unites against the 
Parliament, 120 ; complex po- 
litical conditions, 122 ; its loy- 
alty, 143 ; invaded by Cromwell, 
144 et seq. ; Cromwellian atroci- 
ties, 156; subjugation by Parlia- 
mentarians, 178 ; discontent un- 
der the Protectorate, 221 ; under 
Richard Cromwell's rule, 232 ; 
its misery under English reigns, 
238 

Ireton, Henry, character of, 6; 
captain of troop in Sixty-seventh 
Regiment, 58 ; at Naseby, 96, 



97 ; marriage with Bridget Crom- 
well, 105 ; his leadership of the 
army, 116; approves Cromwell's 
joining the army party, 119 ; re- 
monstrates against the King, 
135 ; counsels mercy toward 
Charles I., 136; desecration of 
his remains, 233 

Irish, the, Charles I. 'sovertures to, 
84 ; Puritan cruelty toward, 129 ; 
Catholics' treaty with Charles 
II., 148; troops at Dundalk, 
157 ; English treatment of, 162, 
227, 238 

Ironsides, the, real power of the 
Independents, 80 ; in action at 
Marston Moor, 87, 89 ; member- 
ship in Eastern Association, 93 : 
type of, 95 ; their army spirit, 
107; support the army party, 120; 
at Preston, 126; as volunteers, 
144 ; veterans in Ireland, 152 

" Irreconcilables," 198 

Issues, political, not always sharp- 
ly drawn, 180 

Ivan the Terrible, 210 

Jackson, Andrew, his backwoods- 
men, 67 

Jackson, " Stonewall," resem- 
blance to Cromwell and Ireton, 
6 ; his piety, 105 ; his strategy 
compared with Cromwell's, 171 

Jamaica, taken by the English, 
229 

James L, his ignoble peace, 21; 
his belief in despotism, 22; his 
weak policy toward Parliament, 
23 ; absolutism in Church and 
State, 25; his policy in Ireland, 
146 

James II., compared with James I., 
101, 234 

Jehovah, invoked in massacres, 
160 

Jews, massacres of, compared with 
Puritans', 160 ; their settlement 
in London, 220 

Johnston, American general, de- 
velopment of his troops com- 
pared with Cromwell's, 91 

Jones, Colonel, Puritan leader, de- 
feats Preston near Dublin, 149 ; 
makes terms with Irish Papal 
party, 150 ; routs Ormond at 
Dublin, 151 

Joyce, Cornet, 117 



251 



Judges, under the Protectorate, 
199 

Kent, Fairfax in, 121 

Kentucky, neutrality of, in Ameri- 
can Civil War, 62 

Kerne, the, in Ireland, 16 ; Queen 
Mary's expulsion of the, 16 

Kilkenny, Cromwell's manifesto 
there, 162 

King Jesus, cry of, 112, 143 

Kings, their divine right, 21 ; Eng- 
lish belief in, 100 ; office of, abol- 
ished by the Commonwealth, 
141 ; arbitrary power of, 161 

Kingship, offered to Cromwell, 215 

Kirk party, in Scotland, 130, 131 ; 
Cromwell's dispute with, 172, 173 

Kirk, the, in Scotland, 166, 167 ; 
its leaders urge Leslie on at 
Edinburgh, 169, 172 ; it3 forces 
broken, 174 

Knox, John, his influence on 
Scotch Calvinism, 18 

Laissez-faire economists, 183 

Lambert, Puritan general, sent to 
the North, 121 ; in action at Pres- 
ton, 124-128 

Lancashire, Presbyterian rising 
there, 121 

Lancers, 60 ; the Scots', at Mars- 
ton Moor, 87 ; at Dunbar, 170 

Landed proprietors, interests of, 
threatened under the Protecto- 
rate, 193 ; English, in Ireland, 
223, 224 

Langdale, Sir Marmaduke, Crom- 
well's foe at Naseby, 121 ; his 
command at Preston, 124-126 

Laud, his hostility to Protestants, 
30 ; his ecclesiastical absolutism, 
33 ; becomes archbishop, 34 ; his 
" thorough " policy, 35 ; attempts 
to introduce ceremonials at Edin- 
burgh, 38 ; supports Charles I. 
against Short Parliament, 41 ; 
imprisoned by the Parliamenta- 
rians, 52 ; his execution, 80 ; his 
intolerance compared with Pres- 
byterians', 109 

Laws, English, considered by Par- 
liamentarians, 181 

Lawyers, Cromwell's dislike of, 
181, 193 

Lee, American Confederate gen- 
eral, his volunteer soldiery, 65 ; 



development of his troops, 91 ; 
his generalship compared with 
Cromwell's, 95 
Legislative power under the Pro- 
tectorate, 197 
Lenthall, Speaker of House of 

Commons, 180 
Leslie, David, Scottish leader, his 
service under Gustaphus Adol- 
phus, 167 ; his defence of Edin- 
burgh, 167 et seq. ; operations at 
Dunbar, 169-172 
Levellers, the, English Parliamen- 
tary party, distrusted by Crom- 
well, 112; their agitation, 119; 
their threatening attitude toward 
Cromwell, 143 ; against the Com- 
monwealth, 164 ; suppressed un- 
der the Protectorate, 213 
Leven, Earl of, Scottish leader, be- 
sieges York, 85 ; at Marston 
Moor, 86 
Liberty, political and religious, 
under the Stuarts, 24 ; Crom- 
well's views on, 79, 107 ; under 
the Protectorate, 197 
Lieutenant-general, Cromwell's 

rank of, 144 
Life Guards, Charles I.'s, 64 
Lincoln, American President, his 
candidacy in 1864, 103 ; his first 
election, 193; compared with 
Cromwell, 207-208 
London, its sympathy with the 
Commons, 57 ; unification of the 
Parliamentary troops there, 64; 
its troops at Copredy Bridge, 
91 ; Presbyterians of, 109 ; its 
mobs in the army party, 118; 
Presbyterian commotions there, 
121 ; the army's march into, 136 ; 
Cromwell's return to, 163, 180 ; 
Jewish settlement in, 220 
Long Parliament, spirit of the, 
5 ; men of, 11 ; its grievances 
compared with American Conti- 
nental Congress's, 36 ; meets at 
Westminster, 41 ; Cromwell's 
issue with army party against it, 
119; the remnant of, 177; its 
dissolution, 187, 188, 201, 204, 
206; comparison with the Pro- 
tectorate, 216. See also Parlia- 
ment, Rump, etc. 
Lord Protector, position of, 197 ; 

Cromwell as, 212 
Lords, House of, in Charles l.'s 



252 



trial for treason, 136; abolished 
under the Commonwealth, 141 

Louis XIV., 162 

Louis XV., 162 

Lower classes in England, their 
discontent under theTudors, 10 ; 
incapacity for political combina- 
tion, 10 

Lucas, Sir Charles, repulsed by 
Scotch at Marston Moor, 88, 89 

Luther, his zeal for righteousness, 7 

Lutherans, intolerant spirit ot, 13 

Lynch law, occasional need of, 54 

Macaulay, Lord, his opinion of 
Cromwell, 1 

McClellan, American general, 
compared with Essex, 92 ; atti- 
tude of Abolitionists toward, 
103 ; Democratic support of, 208 

Major-generals, government ot, 
under the Protectorate, 213, 215 

Manchester, Earl of, Parliamen- 
tary leader, 58 ; commands East- 
ern Association, 85 ; at Marston 
Moor, 86 ; denounced by Crom- 
well in Parliament, 93; Crom- 
well's speech to, no 

Marlborough, Duke of, 145 

Marriage, civil, proposed under 
the Protectorate, 193 

Marston Moor, Battle of, 86-90, 
94, 95, 96 ; Scotch share in, 124 ; 
David Leslie at, 167 

Mary, Queen, her expulsion of the 
Irish kerne, 16 ; her treatment of 
Protestants, 217 ; Irish policy, 238 

Maryland, 165 

Mass, the, denied to Irish by 
Cromwell, 158 ; prohibited un- 
der the Protectorate, 198 

Maurice ot Orange, 14 

Mazarin, French Cardinal, 17 ; 
Cromwell's reply to, 220; co-op- 
erates with Cromwell, 228 

Middle classes in England, power- 
ful under the Tudors, 10; 
strength among Parliamentari- 
ans, 69 

Midianitish woman, the, 160 

Militarism, English avoidance ot, 
under James I., 19 

Military rule, Cromwell's, 213 

Military service, not differenti- 
ated on land and sea in seven- 
teenth century, 184 

Military type, the, in Cromwellian 



army, 107; influenced by relig- 
ious zeal, 191 

Militia, compared with regular 
soldiery, 66 ; at Copredy Bridge, 
91 ; levy system of, 93 

Mill Mount, 154 

Milton, his contempt of political 
dreamers, 21 ; his Puritanism, 
50; his political ideas, in; ap- 
proves Cromwell's joining with 
army party, 119 ; his views on 
the regicide, 139 ; supports the 
Protectorate, 209 ; sonnet on the 
Vaudois, 227 ; his greatness, 232, 
note 

Ministers, their position under the 
Protectorate, 200 

Moderate party, the, in the Long 
Parliament, 55 

Monarchy, Cromwell's dread of, 
195, 211 

Monasteries, Cromwell's ancestors 
benefited by their spoliation, 44 

Monk, General George, 84; at Dun- 
dalk, 150 ; as naval commander, 
183, 201 ; his rule in Scotland, 
221 ; supports Charles II., 233 

Monopolies, under Elizabeth, 10 

Montrose, Earl of, not a profes- 
sional soldier, 69 ; his victories 
in Scotland, 94, 95 ; defeated at 
Philiphaugh, 98 ; aided by Irish 
troops, 147 ; his death, 166 

Moors, defeated by Blake at Tu- 
nis, 228 

Morgan, American Confederate 
commander, his cavalry, 70 

Mountain, the, see French Revolu- 
tion, 120 

Munro, commands Hamiltonian 
cavalry, 122 ; at Ulster, 123 , 
moves toward Preston, 124 ; re- 
treats across the border, 130 ; 
bearing toward Charles II., 148, 
150 

Munster, Royalist Protestants in, 
149 

Muscovites, 210 

Musketeers, clumsiness of their 
weapons, 59 ; tactical uses ot, 
60 ; at Winwick Church, 128 ; 
their appearance in the House 
ot Commons, 187 

Nantes, fildict of, 39 
Napoleon, 99; his unscrupulous- 
ness, 104, 190 



253 



Naseby, Battle of, 95 ; Sir Mar- 
maduke Langdale at, 121 

Navigation Acts, 182, 183 

Navy, the English, its growth, 182, 
184 ; in Dutch wars, 201. See 
also Fleet 

Netherlands, the, British adven- 
turers in, 58 ; oppressions there 
compared with the Irish, 146, 
156 ; English and Spanish in, 229 

Neutrality, in English Civil Wars, 
63 ; in Kentucky, 62 

Newburn, Battle of, 41 

Newbury, Battle of, 92 

Newcastle, Cromwell's letter to the 
Commandant there, 174 

Newcastle, Lord, besieges Gains- 
borough, 81, 82 ; his defence of 
York, 85; at Marston Moor, 87- 
89 

New England, 179 

New Model, the, in Cromwellian 
army, 63, 93, 95 ; strained re- 
lations with Independents, 106 ; 
attempted disbandment of, 117 ; 
results in Independents' army, 
120 ; its veterans in Ireland, 152 

New World, the, America's po- 
sition in, 179 

New York, regicide sentimental- 
lsm in, 138 

North America, 193, 238 

North of England, the, Royalist 
rising in, 121 

Northampton, Essex assembles 
troops there, 69 

Northumbrian Regiment, New- 
castle's, 89 

Nottingham Castle, scene of be- 
ginning ot Civil Wars, 57 ; Roy- 
alists there, 69 ; held by Crom- 
well, 81 

Offenck, the best defence of na- 
tions, 164 

Old-English Catholics, in Ireland, 
146 

"Old Noll," 221 

Old Testament, the, Puritanism in, 
160 

O'Neil, Irish Catholic leader, 149, 
150; joins Ormond, 151; his 
troops in Ireland, 159 

Orange, House of, 135 

Ormond, Earl ot, leader of loyal 
Irish, 146-148 ; surrenders Dub- 
lin, 149 ; heads moderate Irish 



Catholics, 150 ; his supporters 
in Ireland, 151 ; his troops 
at Drogheda, 153 ; in Ireland, 

159 
"Ossawatomie Brown," 145 

Pale, the, in Ireland, 146, 147 
Papacy, the, Henry VIII. 's attitude 
toward, 7; " papacy or prelacy," 
197 
Papal nuncio, in Ireland, 148 
Parliament, Pym's view of gov- 
ernment by, 5 ; growing powers 
under Elizabeth and James, 22; 
Charles I.'s third, 27 ; its strug- 
gles with the King, 29 ; Cove- 
nant taken by, 78 ; Cromwell's 
speech against the generals as 
members in, 93 ; Cromwell's at- 
titude toward, 101 ; factions af- 
ter First Civil War, 106, 108 et 
seq. ; army majority in, 116; 
negotiations with King and army, 
117; Irish coalition against, 120; 
makes Blake admiral, 130; 
Cromwell's dealings with, alter 
Second Civil War, 131 ; plans of 
union with King against army, 
134 ; Irish support of, 143 ; aided 
by Coote in Ireland, 150 ; sum- 
mons Cromwell from Ireland, 
162 ; heirship to royal powers, 
178 ; conflict with army alter 
Scotch wars, 178 et seq. ; law re- 
form, 181 ; Dutch Wars, 181 ; 
non-reelection bill, 185-187 ; its 
rule distasteful to Cromwell, 195 ; 
under the Protectorate, 198 ; 
representation under the Protec- 
torate, 201 et seq. ; dissolution 
of the Rump, 209 ; Second, un- 
der the Protectorate, 215 ; sum- 
moned by Richard Cromwell, 
232 ; Cromwell's speech to Sec- 
ond Protectorate Parliament, 236. 
See also Barebones ; Commons ; 
Rump ; Long Parliament, etc. 
Parliamentarians, military forces 
of, 57 ; strength of, 61 ; in Corn- 
wall and Yorkshire, 63 ; mili- 
tary leaders, 68 ; resources, 69 ; 
weakness of their cavalry, 73 ; 
operations at Gainsborough, 
81 ; aided by the Scotch, 84 ; at 
York, 85 ; at Marston Moor, 88 ; 
at Copredy Bridge, 91 ; leader, 
removed by Cromwell, 93 ; re- 



254 



INDEX 



organization of army, 94 ; re- 
verses alter Marston Moor, 95 ; 
outnumber Royalists at Nase- 
by, 95 et seq. ; dissensions of, 
after First Civil War, 99 et 
seq. ; opposition to Moderate 
Irish party, 152 

Peace, slothfulness of, under James 
I., 21; desire for, by mercantile 
communities, 182 

Peasantry, in England, 61 

Pembroke (Ireland), capture of, by 
Royalists, 121 

Penal laws, English enforcement 
of, in Ireland, 162 

Penances, observed by Royalists 
on anniversaries of Charles I.'s 
death, 240 

Penn, at San Domingo, 229 

Peter the Great, 237 

Peters, Hugh, chaplain to Crom- 
well, 71 

Petition of Right, becomes law, 
28 ; disregarded by the King, 
32 ; supported by Cromwell, 45 

Philadelphia, church to Royal Mar- 
tyr there, 138 

Philip of Spain, bigotry of, 15 ; 
merciless to persons of his own 
faith in other nationalities, 16, 
156 

Philiphaugh, Battle of, 98 

Philippines, the, American volun- 
teers in, 67 

Phillips, Wendell, American Aboli- 
tionist, 103 

Phineas, 160 

Pikemen, their function in seven- 
teenth-century war, 59 ; tactical 
position of, 60 ; at Winwick 
Church, 128 

Pistols, use of, by seventeenth- 
century cavalry, 60 

Plantations, English, in Ireland, 
16, 146 

Platform, American Republicans' 
in i860, 193 

Plundering, suppressed by Crom- 
well, 75 ; punishments for, at 
Winchester, 98 ; Cromwell's sup- 
pression of, in Scotland, 131, 153 

Policy, necessity of adjusting a 
nation's foreign and domestic, 
20 ; Cromwell actuated by, 93 

Politics, as influenced by religious 
feeling, 19 

Pope, the, Cromwell's view of, 173 



Portuguese, the, \6 

Prayer-Book, the, Laud's at- 
tempted introduction of, at Edin- 
burgh, 39 ; prohibited under the 
Protectorate, 198 ; denied to 
Episcopalians under the Com- 
monwealth, 217 

Preachers, arrest of, under the Pro- 
tectorate, 199 

Presbyterian Church, in Scotland, 
18 

Presbyterian English, natural al- 
lies of Scotch, 55 

Presbyterian ministers, in Scot- 
land, 130 

Presbyterian Royalists, against the 
army, 120 ; in Parliament, 177 

Presbyterianism, its growth in the 
Anglican Church under James 
I., 23; sympathy with Scottish 
revolt, 40 ; orthodoxy of, 80 

Presbyterians, in Parliamentarian 
army, 76 ; in Civil Wars, 92 ; 
generals in House of Commons, 
93) 94 ! intolerance of, 104 ; 
faith of, 106 ; ascendancy of, in 
Parliament, 108 ; their intoler- 
ance compared with Laud's, 109 ; 
feared by Puritans, ill; efforts 
at reconciliation with Parliamen- 
tarians, 115; take issue with the 
King against the army, 116, 120 ; 
commotion of, in London, 121 ; 
at Ulster, 122 ; cruel treatment of, 
as Puritan prisoners, 126 ; in Par- 
liament after Second Civil War, 
131 et seq. ; in touch with Ul- 
ster Irish, 146 ; rupture with In- 
dependents, 150 ; stand against 
Cromwell, 164 ; position under 
the Protectorate, 200, 220 

"Presbyter but Priest writ large," 
in 

Presidency, the American, Lin- 
coln's candidacy for, 103 

Preston, Battle of, 124 et seq. ; 
Second Civil War ended by, 130 

Preston, Irish leader, 149 

Pride, Colonel, Parliamentary 
leader, 76 ; at Preston, 126 ; at 
Winwick Church, 128 ; in the 
Commons, 136 

Pride's Purge, 136 

Priests, loyalty of, to peasants in 
Ireland, 17 ; Milton's view of, 
m; slaughter of, at Drogheda, 
154 ; persecuted in Ireland, 223 



255 



Xi.T| XJCjA. 



Prisoners, cruel treatment of, by 

Puritans, 129, 155, 174 
Property, threatened under the 

Protectorate, 203 
Protective tariffs, 183 
Protector, the, office of, 197 et seq. 
Protectorate, the, 197 et seq.; rule 

of, in Ireland, 221-225 
Protectorate Parliament, dismissed 

by Cromwell, 210, 212, 213 
Protestantism, height of, in Eng- 
land, 9; European sects, 11; 
modern individual results of, 12 ; 
the creed of liberty, 17 
Protestants in Ireland, Parliament 
recognized by, 148 ; Royalist, in 
Ireland, 150, 152 ; war of Protest- 
ant powers, 184 ; position of, un- 
der Queen Mary, 217 ; in Ireland 
under the Protectorate, 224 ; 
among the Swiss, 228 ; influence 
of, in Ireland, 238, 239 
Psalm-singing, by Puritans, at 
Winceby, 83 ; at Marston Moor, 
87 ; Basing House, 98 ; Dunbar, 
171 
Public opinion, Cromwell influ- 
enced by, 211 
Puritanism, Carlyle's opinion of, 3 ; 
beginning of the modern epoch, 
4; growth under James I., 23; 
not widespread under Charles 
I., 29; character of, in Scotland, 
38; characteristics of, i6oetseq.; 
apologists for, 218 et seq. 
Puritans, sympathy of, with Scot- 
tish revolt, 40 ; their suspicions 
of the Episcopacy, 56 ; psalm- 
singing at Winceby, 83 ; forces 
of, in army, 85 ; at Marston Moor, 
87; phraseology of, in Cromwell's 
time, 106 ; Presbyterians feared 
by, in ; hatred of Charles I., 
114 ; desire for vengeance on the 
King, 121 ; opposed by the Irish, 
122 ; at Winwick Church, 128 ; 
cruel treatment of prisoners, 
129; justice of their punish- 
ment of the King, 139 ; dis- 
avow Irish alliance, 151 ; cruel- 
ties at Drogheda, 154 et seq. ; 
toleration, 165 ; opposed to Cov- 
enanters at Dunbar, 170 ; in New 
England, 179 ; passion for re- 
ligious regulation, 214; lack of 
generosity to foes, 216 ; rule of, 
in Ireland, 224; great names 



among, 232 ; attitude toward Ire- 
land, 238 ; true greatness of, 239 
Pym, Carlyle's opinion of, 3 ; orig- 
inal type of, 5 ; tolerance of, 
5 ; leadership in Parliament, 30 ; 
first modern "leader," 31; 
speech on imprisonment of 
Strafford, 51, 52 ; imprisonment 
of, 57 ; death, 80 ; his Parlia- 
ment, 177 

Quakers, 143 

Reed, Speaker, quoted, 235 

Reform, attempted by Parliament, 
181 ; by Rump Parliament, 185 ; 
in the Assembly, 193 ; practica- 
bility necessary in, 194 

Reformation, the, in England, 7 ; 
European results of, 8 ; in Scot- 
land, 8 

Reformed Church, influence of, in 
European politics, 7 

Reformers, contradictions of, 13 ; 
fanaticism of, under the Pro- 
tectorate, 199 

Regicides, the, 139 

Regulars (soldiery), advantages of, 
65, 69 ; discipline of, 91 ; Iron- 
sides as regulars, 145 ; ordinary 
type of, 145 

Religious liberty, under the Pro- 
tectorate, 197 ; Cromwell's view 
of, 220; incompleteness of, in 
Ireland, 223 

Republican Convention (U. S. 1, 
i860, 193 

Republicanism in Parliamentary 
army, 108; Cromwell's, 131 

Republicans in England, not ex- 
tremists, 112; after the Revo- 
lution, 142 ; under the Protec- 
torate, 202 ; in the Commons, 
204 ; in Second Protectorate 
Parliament, 215 

Republicans (U. S.), after Civil 
War, 103 

Republics, in South America, 193 

Restoration, the, 214, 232 ; dis- 
graceful effects of, 233 

Revolution of 1688, 6, ico ; com- 
pared with Civil Wars, 234, 235 

Revolution, Puritan, Cromwell's 
attempt to check it, 119 ; Pres- 
byterian support of, 132 ; Crom- 
well's attitude toward it, 142, 
179 ; impermanent effects of. 



256 



INDEX 



1 88. See also American J? ev- 
olution ; French Revolution, etc. 

Rhode Island, 165 

Ribble, river, 125, 127 

Richelieu, 17 

Ritual, Cromwell's suppression of, 
at Ely, 78 

Rochelle, Charles I.'s expedition 
against, 26, 27 

Roman Catholicism identified with 
Spain in English opinion, 14; 
liberality of, in France, 17 ; 
Cromwell's intolerance of, 77 ; 
demanded for State religion by 
Irish, 147 

Roman Catholics, intole r ance of, 
104 ; Irish revolt supported by, 
147 ; position of, under the Pro- 
tectorate, 197 

Rome, 12 

Root and Branch party, the, 56 

Ross, capture of, by Cromwell, 158 

" Roundhead," term of reproach 
in Parliamentary army, 75 

Roundhead army, 64 ; its foot, 73 ; 
at Marston Moor, 88 

Royal Martyr, the, churches dedi- 
cated to, 138 

Royalist Delinquents, 184 

Royalist Protestants in Ireland, 
149, 152 

Royalists, at Nottingham, 57. 58 ; 
strength of, 61 ; driven out of 
Cornwall, 63 ; military leaders 
of, 68 ; natural taste for war, 69 ; 
estates fined by Cromwell, 79; 
at Grantham, 80; defeated by 
Cromwell at Nottingham and 
Burleigh, 81 ; stand at Gains- 
borough, 82 ; defeated at Wince- 
by, 83 ; forces in Civil Wars unes- 
timated, 86; at Marston Moor, 
86 et seq, ; Copredy Bridge, 91 ; 
hope of, in Scotland, 94 ; out- 
numbered at Naseby, 95 et seq. ; 
end of, in Scotland, 98 ; surren- 
der in 1646, 98 ; union with Cath- 
olics and Presbyterians against 
Parliament, 120 ; united in Ire- 
land, 146 ; in Irish wars, 149 et 
seq. ; opposed to the Common- 
wealth, 164; dissensions in Scot- 
land, 166 ; Scottish reverses, 
174 ; their end in England, 178 ; 
position under the Protectorate, 
199, 213, 216 ; penances done by, 
on anniversary of regicide, 240 



Royalists in American Revolution, 
217 

Rump, the, 177, 181 ; dissolution, 
185, 187 

Rump Parliament, 185, 187, 188 

Rupert, Prince, Royalist leader, 
military training, 68 ; at Powick, 
71 ; his charge at Edgehill, 72 ; at 
Grantham, 80; dubs Cromwell 
Old Ironsides, 80; his brilliant 
tactics, 84 ; marches to relieve 
York, 85, 86; against Cromwell 
at Marston Moor, 87, 88, 91 ; 
his activity, 94, 95 ; at Naseby, 
96, 97 ; in Parliament, 108 ; his 
buccaneering cruise, 130 

Russia, 9 ; majority rule unnatural 
to, 25; Charles X.'s policy 
toward, 226 ; under Peter the 
Great, 237 

Russians, the, under Ivan the Ter« 
rible, 210 

Sabbath, observance of, under 

the Protectorate, 213 
Sailors, fame of English, in seven- 
teenth century, 14 ; the Dutch 
as, 182 
St. Bartholomew, Massacre of, 39 
St. Fagan's, Welsh defeat at, 121 
St. Ives, Cromwell's farm at, 45 
St. John, Oliver, Cromwell's cousin 

by marriage, 45, 46. 
St. Peter's, Drogheda, 154 
San Domingo, English expedition 

against, 229 
Santa Cruz, Blake's victory over 

the Spanish there, 228 
Savoy, Duke of, his persecutions 

of the Vaudois, 227, 228 
Scotch, defeat Charles I.'s forces in 
Bishops' Wars, 41 ; adventurers 
in the Netherlands, 58 ; relations 
with Parliamentarians, 78 ; they 
aid the Parliamentarians, 84 ; 
besiege York, 85 ; at Marston 
Moor, 86, 87 ; their military 
qualities, 94 ; Charles I.'s sur- 
render to, 98 ; relations with 
Charles I. in Parliament, 116; 
declare for King against army, 
120 ; they aid the cavaliers, 121 ; 
in Second Civil War, 122 ; Pres- 
byterians at Ulster, 122 ; union 
with Royalists, 124 ; at Preston, 
125-128 ; Puritan treatment of, 
129 ; support Parliament after 



257 



INDEX 



Second Civil War, 131 ; in touch 
with Ulster, 146; share in Irish 
war, 147 ; at Trim, 157 ; declare 
for Charles II., 162, 164; losses 
at Dunbar, 171 ; assemble at 
Stirling, 174, 220 ; immigrants 
into Ireland, 223 ; their share in 
British expansion, 238 

Scotch Highlanders, military type 
of, in Civil Wars, 95 

Scotch Presbyterians, support 
Charles II., 150 

Scotland, character of, 18 ; Episco- 
pacy rejected there, 38, 40 ; de- 
mands indemnity after Bishops' 
Wars, 41 ; its claims paid by the 
Long Parliament, 54 ; makes 
terms with Charles I., 55 ; brawls 
in, 58 ; league with Parliamen- 
tarians, 80 ; Royalist hope of, 
94 ; end of Royalist party there, 
98 ; complex political condi- 
tions, 122, 123 ; Royalists and 
Covenanters, 165, 166 ; subdued 
by Parliamentarians, 178 ; defini- 
tive union with England, 201 : 
rule under the Protectorate, 
220, 221 

Scout-master, 84 

Sea power, Spanish, in sixteenth 
century, 227 

Secession, right of, in American 
States, 62 

Sectaries, Parliamentarian intoler- 
ance of, 116; hatred of the Kirk 
for, 169 

Self-denying Ordinance, the, 93, 94 

Self-government, qualities of, 235 

" Serving men and tapsters," 73 

Severn, river, 71 

Seymour, American Vice-Presi- 
dent, 103 

Sheridan, American cavalry com- 
mander, 70; compared with 
Cromwell in pursuit, 171 

Ship Money, 34 ; payment of, re- 
fused by Hampden, 35, 45 ; de- 
clared illegal by Long Parlia- 
ment, 54 

Short Parliament, hostility of, to 
Charles I., 41. See also Parlia- 
ment 

Sixty-seventh Regiment, Crom- 
well's captaincy in, 58 

Skippon, Parliamentarian major- 
general, wounded at Naseby, 97 

Slavery, prisoners of Puritans sold 



into, 129, 153 ; in the United 
States, 193 

Sligo, captured, 148 

Smithfield, 39 

Soldiers, citizen and regular types 
compared, 64-69 ; veterans at 
Marston Moor, 87 ; pay neglect- 
ed by Parliament, 116 ; Scotch at 
Preston, 128 ; their ready changes 
of allegiance, 129; religion not 
always a cause of efficiency 
among them, 166 

South Africa, volunteers in, 67 

South American republics, 193 

Southerners, in the United States, 
102 

Spain, feared by England in six- 
teenth century, 14 ; supremacy 
of, 14 ; her barbarities compared 
with those of Turkey, 15 ; nat- 
ural foe of France, 17 ; sea power 
crushed by the Dutch admirals, 
18 ; oppressions of the Dutch, 
36, 14b ; her cruelties, 162 ; her 
colonial policy, 224 ; Cromwell's 
interference with, 226; war with 
France, 226, 227 ; defeated by 
England in the Netherlands, 
229 

Spaniards, English victories over 
them on the sea, 182 ; their 
cruelty, 218 

Speaker of the House, Cromwell's 
letter to, 105 

Speeches, character of Cromwell's, 
202, 205 

Star Chamber, the, 28 ; its subser- 
viency to the King, 32 ; Crom- 
well's hatred of, 53 ; abolished 
by Long Parliament, 54 

States rights, doctrine of, in the 
United States, 62 ; in English 
counties, 63 

Steward. See Cromwell, Eliza- 
beth S. 

Stirling, assembling of Scotch 
forces there, 174 

Strafford, Lord, minister of Charles 
I., his jealousy of Buckingham, 
27 ; his abetting of the King, 33 ; 
raised to the Peerage, 34 ; his 
rule in Ireland, 35, 36; returns 
from Ireland, 41 ; his impeach- 
ment and defence, 51 ; death, 
53 ; the King's treachery to him, 

137 

Strategy, lack of, in 1643, 79; Crom- 



258 



INDEX 



well's principles of, i6"8 ; " Stone- 
wall " Jackson's and Cromwell's 
compared, 171 

Stuart, American Confederate 
cavalry commander, 70 

Stuart, House of the, 139 ; its weak- 
ness against the Commonwealth, 
139; re-establishment of, 233 

Stuarts, the English Kings, 7 ; 
England under their rule, 3 ; 
their supposed spiritual suprem- 
acy, 9 ; their ignorance of their 
people, 11 ; weakness of their 
domestic and foreign policy, 20 ; 
their belief in the divine right of 
kings, 21 ; reactionary type of, 
24 ; their power curtailed by Pe- 
tition of Right, 28 ; Charles I. 
the type of, 134 ; their bearing 
in exile, 199 ; comparisons with 
Cromwell, 211 ; their Restora- 
tion, 214 ; taxation during their 
reigns, 216, 225 

Suffrage, manhood, advocated by 
the Levellers, 112 ; under the 
Protectorate, 201 

Sunday, observance of, 214 

Supreme Council of Dublin, the, 
150 

Sweden, champion of the Reforma- 
tion, 26 

Swiss mercenaries, hired by Crom- 
well, 228 

Swords, use of, by cavalry, 60 

Syracusans, the, oppressions of, 
210 

Tactics, shock and fire compared, 
59 ; at Marston Moor, 86 ; Scots', 
at Preston, 125 

Tartar yoke in Russia, the, 210 

Taxation, in England, by Parlia- 
ment, 184 ; under the Protec- 
torate, 216 ; under the Common- 
wealth, 217 

Ten Commandments, the, 46 

Thirty Years' War, the, France's 
share in, 17 ; in Germany, 26 ; 
its height at death of Gustaphus, 
39 ; its influence on Cromwell, 
44 ; soldiery in, 65 ; Cromwell's 
inclination to take part in it, 118 

Thornhaugh, Colonel, Parliamen- 
tary leader of horse, 128 

Tilly, 129, 156 

Timoleon, 208 

Tithes, 193 



Tolerance, in the modern world, 
12 ; falseness of, in seventeenth 
century, 19. See also Catholics ; 
Cromwell ; Puritans, etc. 

Tonnage and poundage, 29 ; dec- 
laration against its pay without 
Parliamentary consent, 31 ; de- 
clared illegal by Long Parlia- 
ment, 54 

Tories, in America, 217 

Tower of London, the, Eliot's im- 
prisonment there, 32 ; Laud's, 52 

Trade, in Europe, in the seven- 
teenth century, 182 

Trim (Ireland), captured by Par- 
liamentarians, 157 

Tromp, the elder, in the Spanish 
wars, 18, 182 

Tudors, English sovereigns, un- 
armed despots, 10, 11 ; their re- 
lations with English commercial 
classes, 10 ; with middle class, 10 

Tunis, Blake at, 228 

Turenne, regular soldiers under, 
145 ; service of British troops 
under, 229 

Turks, cruelty of, 218, 228 

Tyranny, English intolerance of, 
11 ; Cromwell's tyranny defined, 
210 et seq., 216; Charles I.'s, 234 

Ulster, Scotch Presbyterians at, 
122 ; Irish rising there, 146 ; 
captured by Parliamentarians, 
150 ; massacres by Cromwell- 
ians there, 151, 157 ; under the 
Protectorate, 223 

Ultramontanes, the, 148, 150 

Uniforms, variety of, in Parliamen- 
tary army, 64 ; origin of present 
English, 229 

Union, War o f the, in the United 
States, 193 ; its salutary effects, 
208. See also American Civil 
War 

Unitarians, 78 

United States, the, religious toler- 
ance of, compared with Crom- 
well's England's, 49 ; political 
theorists, 113 ; Abolitionists, 192 ; 
Constitution of, 196 ; government 
of, 198 ; practical good sense of, 
219 

Vallky Campaigns, Stonewall 

Jackson's, 171 
Vane, Sir Harry, 185, 187 



259 



INDEX 



Van Heemskirk, his prowess 

against Spain, 18 
Vaudois, the, persecutions of, 220, 

227 
Venahles, at San Domingo, 229 
Venetian government, Puritans' 

prisoners sold to, 129 
Verdelin, Regiment of, 225 
Verney, 154 

Veto, the Protector's, 197 
Victoria, Queen, 135 
Virginia, Puritans' prisoners there, 

129 
Volunteers (soldiery), in American 

Civil War, 65 ; compared with 

regulars, 66-69 ! Ironsides as, 

144 ; rawness of, 167 

Wales, Royalist rising there in 
Second Civil War, 121 ; Crom- 
well's administration there, 216 

Wallenstein, 129, 156 

Waller, Parliamentary general, at 
Copredy Bridge, 91 

War-ships, Dutch, 182 

Washington, compared with Pym 
and Hampden, 5, 36 ; his supe- 
riority over Cromwell, 53 ; his 
regular soldiery, 91 ; character 
of, 101 ; disinclination to dicta- 
torship, 102 ; his lofty plane, 
103 ; his judicious government, 
no; his statesmanship, 188, 190 ; 
his influence on the United 
States Constitution, 196 ; his 
forbearance, 207 

Waterloo, Battle of, compared 
with Marston Moor, 90 

Wayne, American Revolutionary 
general, 91 

Wellington, 145 

Welsh War, 121, 122 

Wentworth, Sir Thomas, 27 ; char- 
acter of, 33. See also Strafford 

West Indies, English rule in, 229 

Westminster, Long Parliament 



meets there, 41 ; Cromwell in- 
stalled there, 199 

Westminster Hall, Cromwell's 
head exposed there by Restora- 
tionists, 233 

West Point, advantages of its 
training, 67 

Wexford, Cromwellian atrocities 
there, 155 ; Cromwell's storming 
of, 157, 158, 160 

Whigarnore Raid, the, in Scot- 
land, 130 

Whitehall, Palace of, 42, 57 ; 
Charles I. beheaded there, 137 

Whitewarts, the, at Marston Moor, 
89 

William the Conqueror, his Lords, 
108 

William III., English King, 100; 
his ability, 101 ; the real succes- 
sor of Cromwell, 234, 235 

Williams, original name of the 
Cromwells, 42 

Willoughby, Lord, Parliamenta- 
ry general, at Gainsborough, 81, 
82 ; Cromwell's charges against, 
85 

Wilson, American cavalryman, 70 

Winceby, Battle of, 83 

Winchester, occupied by Crom- 
well, 98 

Winchester, Marquis of, Royalist 
leader, 98 

Winwick Church, the Scotch at. 
128 

Worcester, Battle of, 175, 177, 180; 
anniversary of, 231 

" Word of the Lord, the," 46, 47 

Yeomanry, in England, 59, 61 
York, the siege of, 85 ; fall of, 90 
Yorkshire, neutrality of, 63 ; its 
troops at Marston Moor, 86 el 
seq. ; rising for Charles I. there, 
121 ; troops in Second Civil 
War, 124; at Preston, 127 



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